Nollekens and his times

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NOLLEKENS AND HIS TIMES

iNDON: RICHARD BENTLEY * SON, 189*.

NOLLEKENS

AND HIS TIMES

BY

JOHN THOMAS SMITH

Keeper of the Prints and Drawings in the British Museum

EDITED

WITH AN ESSAY ON GEORGIAN SCULPTURE, AND
A SHORT ACCOUNT OF J. T. SMITH

BY

EDMUND G O S S E

LONDON

RICHARD BENTLEY AND SON

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[All rig/its reserved]

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51

INTROD UCTION

This curious and entertaining work, which gives
so unique a picture of the household life of a popular
artist at the end of the eighteenth century, was
brought out in two octavo volumes by Colburn in
1828. It contained, as frontispiece, a fine lithograph
of Nollekens, engraved by William Bond from a
drawing by John Jackson, R.A. ' A second edition,
revised, appeared in 1829, and this has been taken
as the text for the present reprint. In this edition
Smith omitted some of his desultory anecdotes, which
had no bearing whatever upon the life of his hero,
and, with one exception, it has not been thought
desirable to put them back again. The two editions
have, however, been carefully collated.

In reprinting the i Life of Nollekens ' two changes
have been made, an account of which must here be
given. In order to fill out the second of his volumes,
J. T. Smith appended i Memoirs of several Contem-
porary Artists, from the time of Roubiliac, Hogarth
and Reynolds, to that of Fuseli, Flaxman and Blake.''

214700

vi INTRODUCTION

This is, in reality, a separate contribution to litera-
ture, and has no connection with the ' Life of
Nollekens.' It is an instalment of the same author s
1 Book for a Rainy Day,' with which,' if at all, it
should be reprinted. It is here omitted as forming
no part of the ' Life of NollekensJ

In the second place J. T. Smith had the habit,
as his work progressed, of adding to his manu-
script reminiscences which had escaped his memory
ivhen he was writing his first draft. These he
printed as notes, although they really form an
integral part of the book. In the present edition
these passages are printed in the text, so as not to
interrupt the reader s attention. Those which are
genuine illustrative notes by Smith have been left
where they stood, at the foot of the page.

In an appendix will be found certain supplemen-
tary facts, hitherto unpublished, which the editor
owes to the courtesy of Miss Edith M. Beechey, of
High House, Newbury.

So little is now remembered of the history of
Georgian sculpture that the editor has prefixed to
this reprint an essay, in which he has endeavoured to
collect what is known about the leading English
sculptors between Roubiliac and Flaxman, and to
give some of the characteristics of their work. It is
hoped that this may serve to help the reader inform- '
ing an impression of the world of art in which
Nollekens flourished. No section of the history of
English talent has been more unworthily neglected.

INTRODUCTION

In conclusion, the editor ventures to call attention
to the very full index which he has prepared. The
1 Life of Nollekens ' has hitherto been a closed book
to the compilers of topographical and biographical
works, from the difficulty of finding a fact or a
detail in its copious pages. It is hoped that the
index here published will enable this compendium of
curious information to be used conveniently as a booh
of reference.

E. G.

CONTENTS

PAGE

Introduction ------ v

An Essay on English Sculpture from Eoubiliac to

Flaxman (by Edmund Gosse) - - - 1

John Thomas Smith - - - - 21

Original Preface - - - - 27

nollekens and his tlmes - - - - 29

Appendix ------- 417

Index ------- 419

AN

ESSAY ON ENGLISH SCULPTURE

FEOM EOUBILIAC TO FLAXMAN.

The history of English sculpture in the eighteenth century
has yet to be written, and the materials for it are now rare
and scattered. Even of Roubiliac comparatively little is
known ; and of the other statuaries, from Bird down to
Flaxman, scarcely any personal data would have been
preserved had it not been for the industry of John Thomas
Smith. In the ' Life of Nollekens,' which is here reprinted,
and in his ' Anecdotes of Several Artists,' that entertaining
writer supplied us with desultory statements for which he
has never yet received due gratitude. A brief and pre-
posterous life of Bacon, by Cecil, and a few notes by Allan
Cunningham, almost exhaust the other sources of informa-
tion on the sculptors of the eighteenth century. The fast-
vanishing works of the artists themselves, ravaged by fire
and flood, dispersed often beyond the power of re-identifica-
tion, complete the slender data on which we can build up
an idea of this important group of men. In the following
pages some attempt will be made, in the first place, to
rearrange what is known about their lives ; in the second,
to bring the light of modern criticism to bear on their
work, hitherto obscured and most unfairly by too im-
plicit a trust in the excessive fastidiousness of Flaxman.
?/* 1

ENGLISH SCULPTURE

Little must here be said, however, of the exotic sculptors
who flourished in England before George III. ascended the
throne. In the central years of the century, Roubiliac, a
Frenchman, and two Flemings, Peter Scheemakers and
John Michael Rijsbrack, competed with one another for
the execution of public monuments in London. The first
was an artist of very considerable genius, whose work is
still highly appreciated and widely known. Scheemakers
and Rijsbrack were men of inferior pretensions, whose
shops, in Vine Street and in Vere Street respectively, were
manufactories of sculpture, in which the former, at least,
was aided by yet another Fleming, Laurent Delvaux, who
soon returned to Belgium. When the Royal Academy was
founded Roubiliac had been dead for six years. Schee-
makers might well expect that he would be a foundation
member. It is not recorded that it was disappointment
that led him, in the next year, to return to Antwerp. He
was seventy-eight years of age, and might well wish to
retire from the profession. Rijsbrack remained in England,
and he also was overlooked, dying above his shop in Vere
Street in 1770. The disappearance of all these men left
the field completely free for the appearance of a new
generation of sculptors.

In a queer copy of verses composed by Roubiliac in
1761, the statuary had said, doubtless in tentative reference
to the new monarch :

II ne f aut pas qu'un Mecenas
Pour revoir le Siecle d'Auguste.'

Next year Roubiliac himself died, and when, in 1768, the
Royal Academy looked about it for foundation members, it
could only find two sculptors who seemed worthy to be
affiliated to the thirty-eight painters. These were Joseph
Wilton and Agostino Carlini, two artists whose historical
position and unquestionable merit call out against the
complete obscurity into which their very names have
fallen.

FROM ROUBILIAC TO FLAXMAN

Of Wilton, almost all that we know has been preserved
to us by the industry of J. T. Smith. According to that
invaluable gossip, he was born in London on July 16, 1722.
In order to realize the important position held in the
history of our art by Joseph Wilton, it must be borne in
mind that until his time sculpture in England had mainly
been carried on by foreign modellers and carvers under
the direction of British architects. Cunningham described
this condition of things with accuracy and vivacity when
he said ' the architects dictated monuments something in
the mathematical principles of their profession. The
names of Kent and Gibbs and Chambers appear upon our
public monuments as inventors of the designs, while the
artists who executed them are mentioned as mere modelling
tools or chisels, which moved as they were directed by
their architectural lords -paramount. Rijsbrack, Schee-
makers, and even Roubiliac, were fain to submit to the
tyranny. In truth, the architects of those days were
mighty men. Not contented with planning the houses in
which the nobles lived, they laid out the gardens in which
they walked, cooled their summer seats and arbours with
artificial cascades, hung gods and seasons upon the ceilings
of their galleries, sketched the cradles for their children,
dictated the form and flowers of their ladies' dresses, and,
following them to the family vault, erected a triumphant
monument in honour of their virtues.'

It was the function of Joseph Wilton to rebel against
this tyranny. He was the first trained sculptor of English
birth, and he was fortunate enough to be born to wealth,
which made him independent. His father was a highly
successful manufacturer of papier-mache, who employed
several hundred persons in his establishments at Charing
Cross and near Cavendish Square. It is probable that
Laurent Delvaux had worked for him while he was in
England, for when the young Joseph began to show a
strong leaning to sculpture, his father took him over to

ENGLISH SCULPTURE

Nivelles, in Brabant, and left him to study with that clever
statuary. In 1744 Wilton quitted Delvaux, and proceeded
to Paris, where he worked for three years under that
brilliant sculptor, Jean Baptiste Pigalle, already, at the
age of thirty, a recognised master of the French school.
Wilton gained the silver medal of the Academie des Beaux
Arts, and ' acquired the power of cutting marble,' a mystery
until that time closed to Englishmen. In October, 1747,
he proceeded to Rome.

For the next eight years Wilton resided in Italy, and
principally at Home and Florence. This was a period of
the most critical importance to the art of sculpture, and it
is a matter for regret that we possess no record of the effect
produced on the mind of the young English sculptor. We
read that in 1750 he received from Pope Benedict XIV. the
Jubilee gold medal, but we know not how he was affected
by the discoveries of ancient Greek art made at Hercu-
laneum and at Poestum, nor by the literature of modern
archaeology, which began about that year to glorify the art
of Greece and its noble simplicity. In Holland he had
probably seen the crowded and violent pediments of Arthur
Quellinus ; in Paris he had been instructed by Pigalle, that
1 Phidias-Pigalle,' as he was called, who endeavoured to
cultivate realism side by side with le grand art ; in Italy
he was now contrasting the frenzied monuments of Bernini
and Algardi with the sweet serenity of rediscovered Greek
sculpture.

Wilton left Italy in 17 5 5, and in the following year
Winkelmann published those ' Reflections on the Imitation
of Greek Art in Sculpture and in Painting ' which formed
the prelude to his great work of archaeological criticism. It
was a period of agitation, of the new sculpture beginning to
rise and smite the old, during which Wilton served his
Italian apprenticeship. We know that he was deeply
interested in the antique, and that when he was in
Florence he executed, in marble, many copies of ancient

FROM ROUB ILIAC TO FLAXMAN 5

statues. In his combination of the old and the new, of the
sculpture of the eighteenth century with that of the neo-
classic school of the Eevolution, Wilton may be compared
with a French sculptor who was still a child when the
Englishman left Paris with the ingenious and gifted Pierre
Julien.

Wilton returned to London in May, 1755, and brought
with him a painter, Cipriani, afterwards the well-known
R.A., an architect, who was to become Sir William
Chambers, and a sculptor, the eccentric Capizzoldi. The
latter made but little mark in England, and soon returned
to Italy ; he was for awhile Wilton's carver and assistant,
and he modelled the curious bas-relief in bronze at the base
of the monument to General Wolfe in Westminster Abbey.
He would, nevertheless, be forgotten but for a story told by
Smith :

1 Capizzoldi, upon his arrival, took the attic story of a
house in Warwick Street, Golden Square, and, being short
of furniture, painted chairs, pictures and window curtains
upon the walls of his sitting - room, most admirably
deceptive, so that with two chairs and a small table he
entertained a friend with a breakfast, on an oyster and a
pot of porter, in a room completely furnished. At such
repasts my father has frequently been his companion.'

In 3 758 Wilton and Cipriani were appointed by the
Duke of Richmond Directors to the Statue Garden in
Privy Gardens, and on the accession of George III. the
sculptor became State Coach Carver to the King. He
presently inherited his father's fortune, and, in Smith's
words, ' the edge of his inclination for art was considerably
blunted.' Nevertheless, in 1768 he was made an Acade-
mician, but he seems to have taken far less interest in the
corporation and in its schools than did his solitary colleague,
Carlini. Wilton became a very fine gentleman, moved in
fashionable society, executed a few more busts and monu-
ments, and became celebrated for his dinner-parties. When

ENGLISH SCULPTURE

Carlini died, Wilton accepted the Keepership of the Royal
Academy, and in that capacity might be seen moving about
upon his gold-headed cane, dressed in the height of the
fashion, with a long-tailed wig, and a portly and dignified
demeanour. He was a hospitable, gentlemanly, elegant
man, but money had killed the promising artist, whose
youth had been so laborious and original. He died in his
official apartments in Somerset Place on November 25, 1803,
in his eighty-second year.

Wilton has suffered great and unmerited neglect. His
name calls for revival as that of an artist of great learning
and high accomplishment. Between Roubiliac and Bacon
he was without a rival, and he is not unworthy to be named
with the one and with the other. In the eyes of Read and
other extravagant imitators of Roubiliac it seemed im-
possible to go too far in the direction of sensational and
preposterous design. Wilton, with his better training and
more harmonious fancy, saw that this was the point at
which the great French sculptor had himself been led into
error, and he cultivated a much calmer manner. The taste
of the age was against him ; he was forced by it to heap up
those rhetorical masses of urns and clouds and tombs
which we find so vapid. Nor was he at any time a great
master of composition. But the more carefully we examine
his monuments, laying aside prejudice and the ridicule
which successive generations have so lightly heaped upon
them, the more shall we be convinced of the talent of
Joseph Wilton.

He was at his best when, full of enthusiasm and cheered
by the patronage of the young King, he started in London
with monuments of heroic size. Such are the ' Holmes '
which he completed in 1766 and the ' Pulteney ' of ] 767.
Here we may admire an extraordinary detail of modelling,
closely transferred from nature itself. Wilton, we are told,
prided himself on his anatomy, and he was justified in
so doing, since his knowledge of the human body was

FROM ROUBILIAC TO FLAXMAN 7

evidently superior to that of any other English sculptor of
the century. The delicacy of his treatment of the play of
muscles and articulations is remarkable ; it is sometimes
almost pre-Raphaelite in its quaint precision. Somewhat
weak in design Wilton usually is. He is always excellent
in execution ; he succeeds in what he aims at, and his
single figures are distinguished, learned, and often beautiful.
He himself, and his age, considered his huge monument to
Wolfe to be his masterpiece. It is difficult to assent to
this criticism ; here the sculptor seems to have striven at
something beyond his powers. In the first place, the
mixture of low relief with figures in the round is highly
unfortunate, and the design, which fails to interesc, over-
powers the detail of the modelling. The lions at the base
are ludicrous, and there is no escaping from them. Yet
examination points to much that is admirable in the
' Wolfe.' Contemporaries found fault with the fact that
the naked body of the hero is supported by soldiers in
modern uniform ; yet the convention could be defended,
even from a realistic point of view, and certainly does not
vex the eye. The way in which the illumination of the
whole enormous structure is focussed on the head and
shoulders of the dying general is exceedingly skilful.

The 'Wolfe,' however, though the most famous of
Wilton's productions, is far from being the best. He is
seen to greater advantage in calmer compositions. He
loved to introduce angels into his mortuary monuments,
and to support them on wings of rare beauty and novelty.
The heads of these spiritual creations of his have some-
times an almost Rossetti-like picturesqueness. Wilton re-
presents the transition from the brisk and realistic virility of
Roubiliac and Pigalle to the imagination of the neo-Hellenic
school, although he shows no sign of direct Greek influence.
Unhappily, success and worldly indulgence made him
languid ; some of his later work is unworthy of him. But
at his best he was a very brilliant and highly-equipped

ENGLISH SCULPTURE

craftsman ; sometimes he seems almost worthy to be called
a great artist. He affected an unusual height of polish on
the surface of his works. His busts are graceful and true,
but they have neither the searching portraiture nor the
high distinction of those of Nollekens.

Of Agostino Carlini, who was also a very clever artist,
much less has been preserved. He was a native of
Genoa, but we do not know when he was born, nor how
he came to distinguish himself above all the supple and
exotic modellers of his age. He lived and died at No.
14, Carlisle Street, Soho, and Smith has preserved for
us this vignette of his appearance late in life : * When
Carlini was Keeper of the Royal Academy, he used to
walk from his house to Somerset Place, with a broken
tobacco-pipe in his mouth, and dressed in a deplorable
great- coat ; but when he has been going to the Academy
dinner, I have seen him getting into a chair, full dressed
in a purple silk coat, scarlet gold-laced waistcoat, point-
lace ruffles, and a sword and bag.' Carlini died on August
16, 1790.

This is all that is known about Carlini, whose works
have disappeared almost as completely as his memory, the
Royal Academy itself not having preserved that equestrian
statue of George III. which he presented to it as his
diploma work in 1769. And yet Carlini, so far as can now
be discerned, was an admirable sculptor. His busts show
the influence of Roubiliac in a modelling that is rather
hard and dry, but masterly in style. His head of George III.
at Burlington House is a delightful work, the carving extra-
ordinarily fine, the drapery, if a little too tight and mannered
in the fashion of the time, well expressing the buoyant
folds of silk, the treatment of the hair varied, the silhouette
dignified and distinguished.

The opening of the schools of the Royal Academy in
1769 was the signal for a complete revival of the arc of
sculpture in England. That two successive Keepers should

FROM ROUBILIAC TO FLAXMAN

have been sculptors must have greatly fostered the study
of that art, since it is the Keeper who has the direction
of the schools of the Royal Academy. Among the young
men who were the earliest to take advantage of the en-
couragement given to modellers were Bacon, Banks, and
Nollekens, destined to be the leading English sculptors of
the next generation. Of these the first-mentioned was
the youngest, but the one who earliest attained wealth
and eminence. It may, therefore, be convenient to speak
first of John Bacon.

Like not a few later sculptors of distinction, Bacon came
to the schools of the Royal Academy from pottery
works. Born on the 24th of November, 1740, the son of a
Somerset man of fallen fortunes, he was apprenticed for
eight years, at the age of fourteen, to the well-known
manufacturer of china shepherdesses Crispe, of Bow
Churchyard. Crispe's pottery furnace was at Lambeth,
and thither the boy took the small clay models which were
to be burned. In process of time he made such models
himself little rude figures of animals and persons. He was
still a labourer at the potteries when, in 1758, he carried
a clay model ' a small figure of Peace, after the manner of
the antique ' to the Society of Arts. He received the
prize of ten pounds, and was from this time forth a
constant recipient of the premiums of the society until
the Royal Academy was formed. Bacon entered the
schools, but his knowledge was already considerable, and
he received in 1769 the first gold medal ever given by the
Academy. Next year he was elected A.R.A. All this
while he was still a labourer. He is said to have invented
a species of artificial stone, called lithodipra, on which a
manufacturer at Lambeth expended some capital in 1769 ;
this product became extremely popular, and for at least
ten years Bacon was the principal workman. Nichols, the
historian of Lambeth, writing in 1784, speaks of the
Artificial Stone Factory in these terms : ' Here are statues

io ENGLISH SCULPTURE

which are allowed by the best judges to be masterpieces
of art, from the models of that celebrated artist, John
Bacon.' Before Bacon left this establishment, the young
Flaxman was finding employment there.

The character of Bacon was a singular one. In Smith's
portraiture of Nollekens, we see a rough, uncultured spirit
achieving success by a blunt adhesion to the truth a
quaint, and even attractive, disdain for the conventions
of society. His eminent fellow-student and precursor in
the Royal Academy disdained nothing. He was a born
courtier, and unmatched in the art of saying soft, in-
sinuating things. He glided imperceptibly into fame and
fortune, nattering and conciliating everybody who could
help him, giving no offence to any man of influence. That
he might avoid the unseemly trick of spirting water from
his mouth on to the clay, as had hitherto been done, Bacon
invented a silver syringe for the purpose, and used it first
when he first obtained a sitting from the King. His address,
which was simple and graceful, without obsequiousness,
delighted George III., who asked him: 'Bacon, have you
studied in Rome ? Did you learn your art out of England?'
1 1 have never been out of your Majesty's dominions,' was
the reply. ' I am glad of it I am glad of it,' answered
the King ; ' you will be the greater honour to us.'

This seems to have occurred about 1774, and for the
next quarter of a century the success of Bacon was
assured. In sixteen public competitions for monuments,
he was successful fifteen times. He became an exceedingly
wealthy man, and as he rose he became more and more
humble. As he gained the attention of the public, he lost
the friendship of his friends. He was accused, not without
cause, of trying to secure a, monopoly of the public sculp-
ture of the country ; and when he had the face to propose
to the Government to do all the national monuments at a
percentage below the Parliamentary price, there was an
outcry among his fellow- artists. ' Spirit of Phidias !' said

FROM ROUBILIAC TO FLAXMAN ir

Fuseli, ' Bacon is to do all the stonework for the navy and
army they ought also to give him the contract for hams
and pork!' Bacon smiled a still humbler smile, and
turned away from his rude colleagues. He had always
been a pious man, and as he grew older he grew more
sanctimonious still. When the sculptors asked their
brother * the presumptuous potter,' as they called him
what he meant by his proposal, he murmured that his
desire was ' to employ monumental sculpture to an impor-
tant moral purpose.' He wrote hymns, he preached
sermons, he distributed epitaphs, and parables and admo-
nitions ; meanwhile, he was amassing a very large fortune.
When he died, suddenly and prematurely, on August 4,
1799, he asked to be buried in Whitefield's Tabernacle, and
to have this inscription plainly carved above him : ' What
I was as an artist seemed to me of some importance while
I lived ; but what I really was as a believer in Christ Jesus
is the only thing of importance to me now.' That Bacon
was not sincere, it would be unfair to insinuate. But he
was a very odd mixture of piety and business, and the
god he worshipped was a sort of Chadband- Apollo. The
most cruel thing said of him was that ' he was charitable
at least in theory.' That sculpture had not been an un-
profitable pursuit to 'the humble cutter of stone,' as he
was wont to call himself, may be gathered from the fact
that he left 60,000 behind him.

Bacon w T as the first English sculptor to get free from the
tradition of Roubiliac, with his boisterous lights and shades,
his excessive under-cutting, and his dependence upon
exaggerated emphasis of style. His forms are far more
generous than even those of Wilton, and he bases his
effects upon a broader system of illumination. In looking
at a successful monument by Bacon, we find evidences of
an eye accustomed to consider the general superficies of
a work of art, not the picturesqueness of its details. He
was well fitted b}^ his long and conscientious training, and

ENGLISH SCULPTURE

by the sobriety of his temperament, to excel in the art of
monumental sculpture. His love for nature and for truth
was great ; his anatomical science, though more superficial
than that of Wilton, was considerable, and he was exceed-
ingly skilful in all the technical processes of his art. He
deserves special recognition as the inventor of the pointing
instrument, which has now entirely superseded the old
practice of pointing by compasses or calipers.

His bust of ' Sickness,' deposited with the Royal Academy
in 1778, an attenuated head, very finely wrought, is a little
mannered in its detail. But in his monument to Chatham,
in Westminster Abbey, Bacon showed for the first time how
great an artist he was. Of all the huge, pyramidal monu-
ments of the age, this is the most accomplished, and the
more carefully it is examined the more admirable it will
be found. Chatham, in the ordinary dress of the period,
advancing an arm and a thin leg in a somewhat rhetorical
pose, dominates the design ; and this figure is excellent in
realism, in the careful study of nature. Lower down, the
Muses, reclining in gracefully balanced poses on the sarco-
phagus, are full of beauty the forms and drapery classical,
yet individualized and made personal. Their draperies, it
will of course be observed, are papery and thin. This was
an error out of which Bacon was to grow.

He was improving to the last. His monument to Halifax,
with the keen portrait-bust supported by beautifully
modelled children, dates from 1782. It is an excellent
work, but the true masterpieces of Bacon are those on
which he was engaged during the last decade of his life.
The soft female figure, wonderfully carved, that lies
stretched in all the abandonment of grief over the tomb
of Brigadier Hope, a monument executed in 1793, is full
of beauty ; but Bacon is seen at his very best in one of his
latest productions, the monument to Sir George Pocock,
executed in 1796. Here his touch, his whole manner,
curiously reminds us of Dubois and the great French

FROM ROUBTLIAC TO FLAXMAN 13

masters of five- and-t wen ty years ago. Nothing, it is safe
to say, was seen in England so broadly treated, so full of
mingled mastery and grace, until Alfred Stevens made his
appearance. Bacon is always Roman, and, by sympathy,
French; the Hellenic sentiment never touched him, and it
was to his resolute retention of the old types that was due,
we are forced to suppose, the strange injustice done to him
by Flaxman. The truth is, and it should be distinctly
said, that Bacon deserves to be ranked among the greatest
of English sculptors.

There could be no greater contrast than between Bacon
and Banks. The one was a realist in his art, a fanatic in
religion; the other was an idealist and a pagan, always
dreaming about beauty, always aspiring towards an im-
possible altitude of delicacy and distinction. Thomas
Banks was born in Lambeth on December 22, 1735. At
the age of fifteen he was apprenticed to a wood-carver, and
in 1761, the year before Roubiliac died, he began to study
from the life in the St. Martin's Lane Academy. The
subjects of his early basso-relievos, the titles of which have
come down to us, show that from the first Banks was
captivated by the romance of Greek mythology. He ran,
at first, neck and neck with Nollekens and Bacon, the
three young sculptors gaining the gold medal of the Royal
Academy, which was not then, as now, biennially granted,
in quick succession. But in 1772, Banks having gained
the travelling studentship, the Academicians sent him to
Rome at their expense, Carlini giving him a letter of intro-
duction to Capizzoldi, who had by this time returned home.
The grant from the Royal Academy lasted three years ;
Banks was instructed by Capizzoldi in the art of carving
in marble, and lingered on in Rome at his own expense.
He had already married, probably in 1765, a lady of con-
siderable property, and this was a most fortunate circum-
stance, for Banks had no commercial instinct, and was
rarely successful in selling a statue.

14 ENGLISH SCULPTURE

In 1779 Banks returned to England, but found that,
while he had been dreaming among the ruins of antiquity,
his two old fellow-students had made a clientele for them-
selves at home. He announced his willingness to execute
monuments, but the commissions were given to Bacon ; he
suggested busts, but the sitters were all pledged to Nolle-
kens. Finding it impossible to obtain employment, he set
out for Russia, taking with him a finished marble statue of
Cupid catching a moth on his wing, which was fortunate
enough to attract the admiration of the Empress Catherine.
He stayed in St. Petersburg for some two years, and is said
to have been frightened back by an appalling commission
laid upon him by the Empress, nothing less than a marble
group allegorical of the Armed Neutrality. He exhibited
in the Royal Academy a design, in low relief, of the
1 Frenzied Achilles,' and in 1784 a statue of heroic size of
the same subject. This figure was greatly admired but
never executed, and the original plaster, after many vicissi-
tudes, has at last found an asylum in Burlington House.
That same year Banks was elected A.R.A., an honour
that had many years earlier been bestowed upon Bacon
and upon Nollekens. He became a full R.A. in 1785.
The remainder of the life of Banks was passed almost
without incident, in the reverie of a sincere and poetic
artist. He found a patron at last in Mr. Johnes, of Hafod,
whose house in Cardiganshire he adorned with a succession
of heroic figures in marble. Unhappily, Hafod was after-
wards burned down, and some of Banks' noblest produc-
tions perished in the flames. Banks died on February 2,
1805, and is buried at Paddington.

As a monumental artist, as an executant altogether,
Banks cannot be compared with Nollekens or Bacon. His
groups do not hold together. His great cenotaph to Sir
Eyre Coote, with its ambitious Indian scheme, is an
appalling failure. In this the chief interest centres
around a great towering palm-tree, apparently made of

FROM ROUBILIAC TO FLAXMAN 15

indiarubber, absurdly posed in the centre of the composi-
tion. These things of Banks' are very poor, and his bas-
reliefs, which the school of Westmacott admired, are
meagre and rude. But when he had an opportunity of
giving rein to his fancy, and to his instinct for selected human
beauty, Banks produced works of considerable sentimental
grace. In 1786 he deposited with the Royal Academy a
' Falling Giant,' which may still be admired. The pose of
this figure, rolling topsy-turvy among a cascade of rocks,
opened up new possibilities in arrangement of the model.
Here, and elsewhere, in his ideal statues, Banks showed
some sense of the Greek imagination. Here, for instance,
the scale of the giant is naively, but effectively, suggested
by a tiny group of a satyr and two goats dancing in the
shade of his gigantic limbs.

Banks excelled in languid monuments which insisted on
the pathos of early death. Of these the most famous is
that erected to Penelope Boothby in the church of Ash-
bourne, in Derbyshire. Queen Charlotte burst into tears
when she saw this work exhibited at the Royal Academy,
and this class of his productions achieved popularity. But
his real force lay in Greek compositions. There exists a
statuette of ' Achilles Arming,' which is singularly vigorous
in technique, though not carried very far. It was, indeed,
in completing his work that Banks was apt to fail. He
was a capital draughtsman ; the Royal Academy possesses
a very fine life-sized chalk study of a head by him.

In all Banks' poetic figures we see the reconstituted
ideal, made up of recollected fragments of antique
statuary, and it is dangerous to praise his work without
being certain whence he obtained the beauty of it. He was
not a sufficiently faithful student of nature to be trusted to
prefer it to some reminiscence of antiquity, and, to confess
the truth, for all his theoretic pretensions, he was to the
end of his days but a somewhat inefficient craftsman.

Of Joseph Nollekens it would be needless to say much

1 6 ENGLISH SCULPTURE

more than will be found in the caustic but graphic and
faithful pages of his candid biographer. One vignette may
be added to the series of Smith's vigorous portraits. This
is how Nollekens struck Allan Cunningham, who saw him
in 1819 :

' He was then unable to move but by the aid of his
attendants, and, having expressed a wish to Chantrey,
whom he admired and loved, to see the exhibition of paint-
ing and sculpture, he was carried upstairs in a kind of sedan,
and with his friend at his elbow sat for a time looking
round him. He then fixed his eye on some work which
pleased him muttering a few almost inaudible words
moved with his body in the direction of his object, and
made a sign when he was placed in the right point of view.
His power of expressing what he felt was never strong it
was less than ever now but his good taste was in full
vigour, for he caused himself to be placed before all the
best paintings, and his remarks went at once to their chief
merits. . . . When he was borne to his coach he gave the
persons who had helped him a guinea each, put his hand
to his hat, and bade farewell for ever to the Royal Academy.
He was then eighty-two years old.'

Nollekens attempted every species of sculpture, but he
succeeded pre-eminently in only one, the bust. His poetic
groups and reliefs show no native sense of grace ; his
Cupids and his Psyches roll heavy heads at one another,
with Boeotian clumsiness ; his monuments are broken with
trivial eccentricities, and are piles of -detail rather than
compositions. His ' Three Captains of Rodney's ' was
executed in direct rivalry with Bacon's ' Chatham,' and
invites comparison with it. But it is in altogether a lower
plane of art. Instead of the broad simplicity of Bacon, we
find the composition crowded with undignified accessories,
wanting in dignity, and even absurd in its attempted
realism of the three portraits hung on a naval trophy,
through which real ships of George III.'s navy are sailing.

FROM ROUB ILIAC TO FLAXMAN 17

Much better are the elegant and effective three-quarter
reliefs of Nollekens, where a difficult task is gracefully and
skilfully performed. But it is in his century or so of vivid
busts that Nollekens takes his place among the leading
artists of the eighteenth century. We cannot precisely
call them unaffected, but they have a life-like look and a
distinction of style which are wholly admirable. His por-
traits include, as will be seen by the list appended to this
biography, most of the remarkable characters of the close
of the eighteenth century. A collection of them would form
a singularly interesting illustration of the political, social
and intellectual life of London under George III. Each is
vigorously portrayed, with some little mannerism, indeed, but
with real vitality, as he or she was, and this happy realism
is Nollekens' great and lasting claim to our admiration.

A fourth sculptor, contemporary with Bacon, Banks and
Nollekens, was Giuseppe Ceracchi, who came to England
in 1773, and was employed in bas-relief work by Adam,
and other architects. To him, in all probability, is due
much of the beautiful relief- work we admire in the domestic
decoration of Adam's houses. He was the master of the
Hon. Mrs. Damer, and at one time found a great deal of
employment in London. But he was of a restless spirit, and
soon migrated to Paris, where he was concerned, in 1801, in
a plot to assassinate Napoleon. Being condemned to death,
he was dragged to the guillotine, dressed as a Roman
Emperor, in a classical car which he had himself designed.

It was long before a new generation of sculptors arose,
with Flaxman at their head. Among the few names which
arrest us in the interval, two attract notice for the pathos
of their lives and the singularity of their manners. John
Deare is principally remembered by what Smith, who knew
him well, has preserved about his career. He was born in
Liverpool in 1759. He was a prodigy of early talent, and
made a wooden copy of the skeleton of an adult person,
with his penknife, at the age of ten years. In considera-

2

1 8 ENGLISH SCULPTURE

tion of his skill he was taken, when only sixteen, into the
employment of Thomas Carter, an old-fashioned but popular
statuary, who had been the earliest employer of Koubiliac.
The exquisite precision of Deare's work was admired from
the first, and when he was only twenty he gained the gold
medal of the Royal Academy for a group of \ Adam and
Eve.' A number of Deare's letters have been preserved,
and give a valuable series of impressions of the habits of a
young sculptor of that time. Bacon was pleased to patronize
him, and in 1783 he was astonished at his own prosperity.

In 1785 the Royal Academy, greatly impressed with the
genius and industry of Deare, sent him to Italy. Here he
immediately found employment, and won the ecstatic
admiration of Canova. Had he returned to England, he
would certainly have been immediately elected an A.R.A.,
but he married ' a clever little Roman girl, who is at least
my equal,' and adopted the Italian style of living. Deare
habitually overworked himself, and was extremely nervous
and eccentric. He was always saying his prayers, and as
he believed it right never to pray unless in a stark-naked
condition, these orisons were injurious to his health. He
went further, and being convinced that he would gain
inspiration by spending the night sleeping on a block of
marble before he began to carve it, he caught a violent
cold, and died at Rome on August 17, 1795.

Another youog man of genius, carried off untimely, was
Thomas Procter, born at Settle, in Yorkshire, in 1753. He
lost a great deal of time in trying to be a painter, but
when at length he began to model, he astonished the
studios. He caused a sensation by producing a statue of
'Ixion on the Wheel,' which Reynolds persuaded Sir
Abraham Hume to buy. This encouraged Procter to
produce a large group of * Diomed devoured by his Horses,'
which contemporary critics speak of in terms of the highest
praise. Unfortunately, he did not get a commission for
this elaborate work, which had occupied him twelve months,

FROM ROUBILIAC TO FLAXMAN 19

and in a fit of despondency he destroyed his model. The
Academicians, admiring his talents and desiring to help
him, determined, in 1793, to send him to Rome, but Procter
could not be discovered. Benjamin West undertook to
search for him, and found him at length, dying of starvation
and disappointment, in an attic in Clare Market. Help came
too late, and a few days later the interesting artist died.

Associated as a student with Deare and Procter, but
more fortunate in his fate, was John Charles Felix Rossi, a
man who, notwithstanding his exotic name, was of English
birth, although of Italian descent. He was born, the son
of a physician, at Nottingham, in 1762. He early showed
a love of statuary, and was placed under an Italian sculptor
in London, from whom he passed to the schools of the
Royal Academy. In 1785 he gained a travelling student-
ship, and went to Rome, returning to England three years
later. He became an A.R.A. in 1798, shortly before the
death of Bacon, to much of whose monumental work he
succeeded. He is best known by a series of military monu-
ments in St. Paul's Cathedral. Rossi outlived his popu-
larity, and retired from the Academy on a pension. He
did not die until 1839.

It is very difficult to express an opinion on the work of
Rossi, for the simple reason that he employed Italian
carvers so clever that they took most of the individuality
out of his modelling. His taste was classical, without any
real leaning to the neo- Hellenic school of Banks, Flaxman,
and Deare. His bust of Lord Thurlow, at Burlington
House, is a very favourable example of his handicraft
dignified, well-balanced and truer to nature than might be
expected. Rossi marks a stage in the passage of iconic
sculpture in England from Carlini to Chantrey, but he can
hardly be spoken of as an individual force.

Rossi, however, seems a great artist by the side of his
colleague and rival, William Theed, who was born in 1764,
and who enjoyed the honours of membership in the Royal

ENGLISH SCULPTURE

Academy from 1811 till his death in 1817. In Theed, the
neglect of nature and the living model, the attempt to give
plastic forms to sentimental prettinesses and incorporeal
ideas, is seen penetrating the English school, and he leads
on directly to Westmacott, and the final decadence of
Georgian ideal sculpture. It is strange that in the person
of Theed Flaxman should not have seen an awful example
of the danger of such fastidiousness of taste and dread of
realistic violence as he himself was so fond of preaching.
These refinements, practised by hands less amply inspired
by genius and by the sense of beauty than those of Flaxman,
led to nothing but the most deplorable ineptitude and
feebleness. The visitor to the Diploma Gallery may
glance at the marble alto-relievo of l Ganymede,' deposited
there by the elder Westmacott in 1812 ; it is so disgrace-
fully bad that it could not at the present day be admitted
as the work of the roughest student in the schools.

To follow the beautiful talent of Flaxman to the point
where its slow development culminated, would lead us too
far away from the world in which Nollekens flourished.
Flaxman, moreover, was a highly imaginative designer,
who occasionally carried into execution some of the dreams
of beauty which were for ever passing before his pencil,
but was not, in the strict sense, a very skilful statuary.
He never learned to handle the marble with real confix
dence, and the comparatively few works which he suc-
ceeded in executing were too often stiff and mannered.
Flaxman, with his devotion to Greek ideals of beauty, his
fertile fancy, and his impatience of the manual toil of the
sculptor, had little in common with the somewhat stolid
and prosaic, but eminently workmanlike, statuaries to do
justice to whom an attempt has been made in the preceding
pages. His is the more attractive temperament, but they
also are deserving of something better than the complete
neglect which has for so long a. time overtaken them.

EDMUND GOSSE.

[21]

JOHN THOMAS SMITH.

Had it not been for the readiness with which John Thomas
Smith gossiped about himself in his books, there might be
little or nothing to record here regarding the author of the
* Life of Nollekens.' Happily, he was not restrained by
any excess of diffidence from recording incidents with
which he was intimately connected, and we are able to
string together enough of these loose autobiographical
notes to form something of a picture of the man. As he
is fond of reminding us, his memory was accurate and
extremely tenacious, and his habit throughout life was to
preserve papers and to note down occurrences. It is not
his fault if too many of those eminent men of whose
peculiarities he preserved a lively record have ceased to be
interesting to us. He himself, it is to be feared, is no
longer an object of much curiosity. Such as he was, how-
ever, in his humdrum life of monotonous observation, we
will endeavour to depict him.

John Thomas Smith was born on the evening of June 23,
1766, in a hackney coach, which was hurriedly bearing
his mother back, from a visit to a brother in Seven Dials,
to his father's house, No. 7, Great Portland Street, Maryle-
bone. The child's grandfather, John Smith, had been a
Shropshire clothier ; his father, Nathaniel Smith, ' sculptor
and printseller,' had been a student in the St. Martin's
Lane School with Nollekens, and had proceeded to the
studio of Roubiliac when the latter became the pupil of

22 JOHN THOMAS SMITH

Scheemakers. Nathaniel remained in the service of
Roubiliac until, on January 15, 1762, he followed the body
of that illustrious sculptor to his grave in St. Martin's
Churchyard. The mother of John Thomas Smith had
been a Miss Tarr, a member of the Society of Friends;
her health was declining from his earliest infancy, and
some of his infantile memories were connected with visits
that she and he paid, for the benefit of her health, to the
wells at Greenwich and at Kilburn. She died in 1779. It
seems that Nathaniel Smith passed into the employment of
his old friend and fellow-student, Nollekens, when the
latter settled in London in 1770, and J. T. Smith was
familiar from earliest childhood with the oddities of the
remarkable artist whose biographer he was to become.

An old star-gazer and tea-grouter,' to whom his mother
took the child, prophesied that John Thomas Smith would,
throughout life, 'be favoured by persons of high rank.'
This prediction was first realized in 1778, when Mr. Charles
Townley looked over the boy's shoulder as he was drawing
in Nollekens' studio, and gave him half-a-guinea to buy
paper and chalk. Dr. Samuel Johnson, also, about this
time, patted his head and praised him for his application.
Smith had, indeed, a little later, an interesting experience
of Dr. Johnson's spirit, for he 'once saw him follow a
sturdy thief, who had stolen his handkerchief in Grosvenor
Square, seize him by the collar with both hands, and shake
him violently, after which he quickly let him loose, and
then with his open hand gave him so powerful a smack on
the face that it sent him off the pavement staggering.

On February 1, 1779, Smith followed the crowd to West-
minster Abbey, and saw Garrick buried in Poets' Corner.
When the boy was about fourteen he began to model, and
he seems to have attracted the attention of Wilton, the
sculptor, who gave him a letter of introduction to Barto-
lozzi, it having been decided that John Thomas should be
an engraver. Bartolozzi was kind, but refused to take a

JOHN THOMAS SMITH 23

pupil, and in 1781 the Bishop of Peterborough (Dr. Hinch-
liffe) persuaded John Keyse Sherwin, the painter-engraver,
to take him in. J. T. Smith had by this time passed with
tolerable credit through the schools of the Royal Academy,
and he stayed working under Sherwin until 1784. Here he
was kissed by the beautiful Perdita Robinson, who drove to
the studio in a sky-blue chariot, with a basket of flowers so
artfully painted in the centre of each panel as to look like
a coronet when the carriage was in motion. In 1782 he
helped to adjust the light at the successive sittings which
Mrs. Siddons gave to Sherwin for her portrait.

Sherwin was rapidly going down in the world, and in
1784 Smith, then eighteen years of age, was glad to leave
him. Mr. Richard Wyatt, the amateur, now employed him
to make topographical drawings of the neighbourhood of
Windsor, and thus the favourite labour of Smith's life was
started. He was helped by Thomas Sandby, R.A., and in
this year he formed the acquaintance of Flaxman, Blake,
Samuel Woodford, and Paul Sandby. On three occasions,
each of which he minutely describes, George III. met him
and spoke to him. His thoughts turned to the stage for
he was a good-looking fellow and in 1787 he was promised
an engagement as an actor at the Royalty Theatre. This
came to nothing, and he was obliged to seek for employ-
ment as a drawing-master. For this purpose he settled in
lodgings in Gerrard Street, Soho. In this same year, 1787,
he exhibited for the first time at the Royal Academy,
sending a drawing, in black chalk, of a famous beech-tree
in Windsor Forest, which was purchased by the Earl of
Warwick, at this period a useful patron of Smith. In
1788 the artist married, and settled at Edmonton as a
portrait-painter, under the patronage of Sir James Lake,
Bart., of The Firs.

While at Edmonton, Smith gave increasing attention to
local topography, issuing, in 1791, the earliest of his
publications, ' The Antiquities of London and its Environs.'

24 JOHN THOMAS SMITH

To this followed, in 1797, his ' Remarks on Rural Scenery,'
illustrated from nature by twenty original etchings of
picturesque cottages. In May, 1798, the office of drawing-
master to Christ's Hospital being vacant, J. T. Smith,
warmly supported by half the Royal Academy, stood as
a candidate, but was not successful ; the testimonials which
he received, however, were so flattering, and from artists of
such high renown, that he gave himself the satisfaction of
printing them. J. T. Smith left Edmonton in 1795, and
came back into London, practising as a portrait-painter
and an engraver, while not neglecting his topographical
inquiries. In 1807 his laborious and valuable work on
' The Antiquities of Westminster ' was published for a large
body of subscribers, and he was invited to treat Lichfield
in the same way, but could not be persuaded to leave the
London to which he was so deeply devoted. The result of
his further studies appeared, in instalments, between 1810
and 1815, as 'The Ancient Topography of London,' while
in the last-mentioned year he issued his popular volume,
1 The Streets of London,' a series of etchings.

On July 23, 1816, William Alexander, the recently-
appointed and first Keeper of the Prints and Drawings at
the British Museum, died of brain-fever. Smith was a
candidate for the vacant post, and had by this time become
so distinguished in his own line that the Archbishop of
Canterbury, one of the three electors, * was astonished he
should think it worth while to waste his strength in pursuit
of such a trifling office.' In September, 1816, Smith was
appointed, and held the keepership until his death. He
continued his literary work, and in 1817 published ' Vaga-
bondana,' sixty portraits drawn and etched from life by
himself, with biographical sketches of the most remark-
able London beggars of the time. As the reader of the
present volume will discover, Nollekens, when he died in
1823, was found to have made Smith joint executor of his
will, in company with Sir William Beechy and Francis

JOHN THOMAS SMITH 25

Douce, leaving him at the same time, for his trouble,
100. The smallness of this legacy caused J. T. Smith,
who had reason to expect a much larger benefaction, a
violent disappointment, and his rancour against Nollekens
could not be appeased. He revenged himself by writing
what is perhaps the most candid biography ever published
in the English language.

Smith did not long survive the publication of his ' Life of
Nollekens.' He died, after a very few days' illness, at his
house in University Street, Tottenham Court Road, on
March 8, 1833, not having completed his sixty-seventh
year. He was buried eight days later in the burial-ground
of St. George's Chapel, Bayswater. The Gentleman's
Magazine paid the following tribute to his memory :

1 Mr. Smith was very generally known, both from the
various works which he had published, and from the public
situation which he filled at the British Museum. He was
possessed of much kindness of disposition ; many an
instance might be mentioned of his charitable and friendly
assistance to young artists who have sought his advice.
He had good judgment to discern merit where it existed,
sufficient good feeling to encourage it in a deserving object,
and sufficient candour to deter from the pursuit where he
found there was no indication of talent. In short, he was
a very warm and sincere friend, and he will be greatly
regretted by many who, have enjoyed his good-humoured
conversation and ever-amusing fund of anecdote, and par-
ticularly by the frequenters of the Print Room at the
Museum, where his unremitting attentions ensured for him
the regard and respect of some of the first characters in
the country.'

At the time of his death, J. T. Smith had prepared for
the press a pleasant olio of gossip and reminiscence, which
was presently published under the title of ' A Book for a
Rainy Day.' The pictorial works of Smith have consider-
able merit. His landscapes and architectural drawings, in

26 JOHN THOMAS SMITH

the eighteenth-century manner, have great accuracy, and
he was a skilful etcher at a time when this art was but
little practised in England. The reader of his 'Life of
Nollekens ' does not need to be assured that he was a most
whimsical and vivacious writer.

E. G.

NOLLEKENS AND HIS TIMES

[27]

ORIGINAL PREFACE

Roscoe, who wrote the anonymous Preface to Daulby's
* Catalogue of Rembrandt's Etchings,' says : ' The history
of a man of genius is, in general, that of his productions.'
In the following memoir I trust to do more than this ; and
to delineate the life, not only of a ' man of genius/ but of a
most eccentric character.

To dispense with the old custom of presenting a letter of
introduction, or sending in my card to those to whom I am
unknown, would be irregular ; the reader, therefore, is in-
formed, that I believe there can be no one better acquainted
with the extraordinary characteristics of the man of whom
the following anecdotes are related than myself, having
been his pupil for the space of three years, and intimately
known to him for nearly sixty. When I was anunfant he
frequently danced me upon his knee.

With regard to pecuniary and domestic habits, I am
convinced that England has not produced such a character
since the death of Elwes.

28 ORIGINAL PREFACE

In the course of these pages I have acknowledged my
obligations to several friends for their kind communications,
and here hope for their pardon for having reserved this
place for my best thanks to my friend Mr. Richard
Thomson, the well-known author and editor of numerous
interesting works, for his kindness in many instances.

JOHN THOMAS SMITH,

Keeper of the Prints and Drawings in the
British Museum.
October, 1828.

[29]

CHAPTER I.

Nollekens' pedigree His father frightened by the rebels in 1745
Nollekens placed with Scheemakers the Sculptor His juvenile
passion for tolling bells He gains premiums in the Society of Arts
Leaves England for Rome Patronized there by Garrick and
Sterne He gains the Pope's gold medal Exposed to assassination
by Barry the painter Barry's rude and brutal conduct Nollekens
a dealer in antiques Athenian Stuart Nollekens a botcher up of
ancient fragments A lucky hit Successful smuggling by Nollekens
His filthy mode of living in Rome He returns to London, and
is chosen a member of the Royal Academy He falls in love and
marries Figure and wedding-dress of his bride Fan-painting
London antiquities.

The grandfather of Mr. Nollekens was baptized at
Antwerp on March 24, 1665 ; he was a painter, and
made a long residence in England, but subsequently
settled at Roanne, in France. His son, who is
recorded by the various names of Joseph Franciscus,
or Cornelius Franciscus, or Old Nollekens, as he is
called by Walpole, the father of Joseph, the subject
of these memoirs, was born at Antwerp, in the
parish of St. Andre, on June 10, 1702, and came to
England on May 3, 1733, where he married Mary
Anne Le Sacq. As he had studied under Watteau,
his pictures, in point of subject and scenery, were
somewhat similar to those of his master, though in
other respects they were far short of that tasteful

30 NOLLEKENS AND HIS TIMES

artist's feeling ; however, he supported his family
with respectability, and was even enabled to make
some provision for the future.

The following anecdote of Nollekens' father was
communicated to me by James Northcote, Esq.,
K.A., who received it from our mutual friend, the
late eminent sculptor, Thomas Banks, Esq., E.A.
4 Old Nollekens,' observed he, 4 was a miserably
avaricious man, and during the rebellion in 1745
his house was marked as belonging to a Roman
Catholic, and one in which the mob thought them-
selves sure of finding money. However, they did
not visit him ; but the idea had seized him so
seriously that he lingered in a state of alarm until
his death, which took place in Dean Street, Soho.
He was buried at Paddington, in 1747, 1 under the
names of Joseph Francis Nollekens, leaving a wife,
by whom he had five children viz., John Joseph,
baptized January 29, 1735 ; Joseph, the subject of
the present volume, born and baptized August 11,
1737, at the Roman Catholic Chapel, in Duke
Street, Lincoln's Inn Fields ; Maria Joanna Sophia,
baptized May 3, 1739 ; Jacobus, baptized April 10,
1741 ; and Thomas Charles, baptized May 31, 1745.'

My late father, Nathaniel Smith, and Joseph
Nollekens were playfellows, and both learned
drawing together at Shipley's School, then kept in
the Strand, at the eastern corner of Castle Court ;
the house, now No. 229, is at present occupied by
Mr. Helps. What renders the building the more

1 Old Nollekens died in the parish of St. Anne's, Soho, on January 21,
1748. Ed.

THE CHILDHOOD OF NOLLE KENS 31

interesting is that it was not only in this house that
the Society of Arts had its first meetings, but it was
subsequently inhabited by Rawle, the antiquary, and
friend of Captain Grose. On August 7, 1755, my
father was placed with L. F. Roubiliac j 1 and Joseph,
in 1750, being then in his thirteenth year, under
the care and instruction of Peter Scheemakers, 2 an
eminent sculptor, at that time residing in Vine
Street, Piccadilly, on the site of the present Court
of Requests. Joseph's mother subsequently married
a Welshman, named Williams, who some years
before her death conducted her to his native place.
Joseph Nollekens was considered by all the
neighbours of Vine Street as a civil, inoffensive lad,
but not particularly bright ; however, Mrs. Schee-
makers used to give this character of him, that
' Joey was so honest that she could always trust
him to stone the raisins.' His love for modelling
was the greatest pleasure he possessed, though it is
true that he had an idle propensity for bell-tolling,
and in that art, for which many allowed him to
have a superior talent, he would frequently indulge
by running down George Court to St. James's
Church to know how funerals went on. He was
well known both to the sexton and his man, who
generally accosted him with the joyous exclamation
of, ; What, my little Joey, are you come ? Well,
you must toll to-day !' Whenever his master

1 Where he remained until the death of that sculptor, January 11,
1762. Ed.

2 Scheemakers, born about 1700, was a native of Antwerp. He left
England in 1 769, and died soon after. He executed many monuments
in London, and was a formidable rival to Roubiliac. Ed.

32 NOLLEKENS AND HIS TIMES

missed him, and the dead-bell was tolling, he knew
perfectly well what Joey was at.

He had so little pride that he himself has stated
he was often met slowly and steadily creeping along
to save the head of a pot of porter, which the maids
had sent him for on a washing clay ; but notwith-
standing all his childish inclinations, he was, as
he grew up, not unmindful of his art, rose early,
practised carefully, and being a true son of his
father, passionately fond of money, started for the
prizes offered by the Society of Arts ; and it gives
me infinite pleasure to state that Joseph Nollekens
and Nathaniel Smith, mv father, carried off some
of the first and best of its premiums, as will appear
by the following extracts from the Registrar's
books :

1 In 1759, to Joseph Nollekens was adjudged the sum of lbl. 15s. for
a model in clay of figures. In 1760, for a model in clay, a bas-relief,
31Z. 10s. ; and in the same year, for a model in clay of a daucing Faun,
10Z. 10s.'

As Mr. Nollekens' mother had married a Welsh-
man, who was partial to his native air, he easily
persuaded her to accompany him into Wales ; and
the brothers and sisters of Nollekens being all
abroad, he had no motive to induce him to give up
an inclination he had long entertained of travelling
to see the works of Michael Angelo, and of other
great men. He, therefore, after having served his
friendly master full ten years, without the exchange
of one unpleasant word, left England for Rome in
the year 1760, with all the little property he had
acquired.

NOLLEKENS IN ROME 33

Taking Paris in his way, lie called upon his
uncle, who, from his questions and cool manner of
half opening the street-door, appeared to doubt the
veracity of his visitor. However, upon his seeing
him in possession of a gold watch, he was tempted
to ask him in, and slightly pressed him to stay
dinner, but this invitation Nollekens, who had felt a
chill, proudly declined.

On his arrival at Rome, he found his purse
reduced to twenty-one guineas, and, from a dread
of want of money, he soon executed a basso-relievo
in stone, which he consigned to England, and for
which, in 1760, he had the honour of receiving a
prize of 10 10s. ; but his spirits were exhilarated
to a much higher degree in 1762, bv the vote of a
prize of 52 10s. for a basso-relievo in marble,
which is thus clumsily noticed in the Public
Advertiser of Tuesday, May 25, 1762 :

{ At a meeting of the Society of Polite Arts, on Friday last, for
a marble basso-relievo, the subject Timocles conducted before
Alexander, the premium of fifty guineas was given to Mr. Joseph
Nollekens, pupil of Mr. Scheemakers.'

Whilst Mr. Nollekens was at Rome, he was
recognised by Mr. Garrick with the familiar ex-
clamation of, ' What ! let me look at you ! Are
you the little fellow to whom we gave the prizes at
the Society of Arts ?' ' Yes, sir,' being the answer,
Mr. Garrick invited him to breakfast the next
morning, and kindly sat to him for his bust, for
which he paid him 12 12s. ; and I have not only
often heard Mr. Nollekens affirm that the payment

3 "

34 NOLLE KENS AND HIS TIMES

was made in ' gold,' but that this was the first busto
he ever modelled.

Sterne also sat to him when at Rome, 1 and that
bust brought him into great notice. With this
performance Nollekens continued to be pleased even
to his second childhood, and often mentioned a
picture which Dance had made of him leaning upon
Sterne's head. During his residence in Italv he
gained the Pope's gold medal for a basso-relievo,
which will be afterwards noticed.

Barry, 2 the historical painter, who was extremely
intimate with Nollekens at Rome, took the liberty
one night, when they were about to leave the
English coffee-house, to exchange hats with him
Barry's was edged with lace, and Nollekens' was a
very shabby plain one. Upon his returning the hat
the next morning, he was requested by Nollekens to
let him know whv he left him his s;old-laced hat.
4 Why, to tell you the truth, my dear Joey,'
answered Barry, ' I fully expected assassination last
night, and I was to have been known by my laced
hat.' This villainous transaction, which might
have proved fatal to Nollekens, I have often heard
him relate ; and he generally added, c It's what the
Old Bailey people would call a true bill against
-Jem.' Although Barry was of an irritable and
vindictive spirit, yet, after ridiculing Nollekens
upon almost every subject, he would not scruple to
accept little acts of kindness at his hand, and then
with the greatest brutality insult him.

1 In the winter of 1765. Ed.

2 James Barry (1741-1806), elected A.R.A. in 1772, R.A. in 1773,
and expelled from the Royal Academy in 1799. Ed.

fAMES BARRY 35

I remember an instance of this kind of conduct,
which took place soon after Barry had completed
the etchings from his pictures in the Adelphi.
Nollekens, who was quite delighted in procuring
him subscribers, once called out to him as he
entered the studio, ' Well, Jem, I have been very
successful for you this week : do you know, I have
procured you three more subscribers to your prints
from the 'Delphi pictures !' Barry, instead of even
returning a smile for his kindness, or thanking him
by a nod, flew into a most violent passion, and,
uttering the coarsest imprecations, of which he
possessed a boundless variety, bade him to attend
in future to his own business, and not to solicit
subscriptions to his works, adding, after the utter-
ance of a most wretched oath, that if the nobility
wanted his works, they knew where he was to be
found, and they might come to him he wanted no
little jackanapes to go between him and those who
ought to apply at once to the principal. And all
this bombast was because Nollekens had declared
his success in the presence of his workmen in the
studio. Had he received the information in his
parlour all would have been well, and he would
have pocketed the money, as he had done frequently
before ; for to my own knowledge Mr. Nollekens
procured him several names of personages of the
highest rank.

During Mr. Nollekens' residence at Rome he
purchased, among other articles, by which he made
considerable sums of money, numerous pieces of
ancient Roman terra-cottas, some of exquisite taste,

NOLLEKENS AND HIS TIMES

from the labourers who were employed in diggings
gravel at Porta Latina : they were mostly dis-
covered at the bottom of a dry well, and must
evidently have been placed there for security.
Xollekens, who bought them for a mere trifle, sold
them, upon his arrival in England, to Mr. Townley, 1
and, together with that gentleman's marbles, they
have since been purchased by Government for a
considerable sum, and are now let into the walls
of the first room of the Gallery of Antiquities
in the British Museum. In this collection there
are many duplicates, which are so precisely like
each other that, in all probability, they were pressed
from the same mould. Independently of the
graceful figures which are introduced in several of
these compositions, the foliated ornaments are ex-
tremelv lis;ht and beautiful.

Mr. Xollekens, from the year 1761 to the time he
left Rome, consigned several of his productions to
his friend, Athenian Stuart, 2 who had undertaken, in
consequence of an early intimacy, to see them
placed in the best of the exhibitions in London,
which he certainly did until the establishment of
the Royal Academy ; and then, being inimical to
the interests of that respectable body, he departed
from his confidential trust, by suffering the works
of Xollekens to be exhibited with those of the

1 Charles Townley, born in 1737, died January 3, 1805. He was
J. T. Smith's earliest admirer and patron. Ed.

2 James Stuart, the architect, was born in 1713. He was one of
the first men to make a minute study on the spot, between 1751 and
1755, of ancient Greek architecture. In 1762 he published a valuable
work on the antiquities of Athens. He died in 1788. Ed.

PATRONS 37

rejected artists, who were certainly of the most
inferior class.

Mr. Nollekens, upon his return to England, dis-
covered the treachery, and was so highly exas-
perated with his pretended friend's conduct that he
never entirely forgave him, though he certainly
now and then visited him.

The patrons of Nollekens, being characters pro-
fessing taste and possessing wealth, employed him
as a very shrewd collector of antique fragments,
some of which he bought on his own account ; and
after he had dexterously restored them with heads
and limbs, he stained them with tobacco -water,
and sold them, sometimes by way of favour, for
enormous sums.

My old friend, Mr. George Arnald, A.K.A., 1
favoured me with the following anecdote, which he
received immediately from Mr. Nollekens, con-
cerning some of these fragments : Jenkins, a
notorious dealer in antiques and old pictures,
who resided at Rome for that purpose, had been
commissioned by Mr. Locke, 2 of Norbury Park, to
send him any piece of sculpture which he thought
might suit him, at a price not exceeding one
hundred guineas ; but Mr. Locke, immediately
upon the receipt of a head of Minerva, which he
did not like, sent it back again, paying the carriage
and all other expenses.

1 A landscape-painter, born in 1763, and elected A.R.A. in 1810.
He was never promoted to be an R.A., but survived until 1841, He
was the brother of Sebastian Wyndham Arnald, the sculptor. Ed.

2 William Locke, the amateur, born in 17G7. Ed.

NOLLEKENS AND HIS TIMES

Nollekens, who was then also a resident in Rome,
having purchased a trunk of a Minerva for 50,
found, upon the return of this head, that its pro-
portion and character accorded with his torso. This
discovery induced him to accept an offer made by
Jenkins of the head itself, and two hundred and
twenty guineas to share the profits. After Nollekens
had made it up into a figure, or, what is called by the
vendors of botched antiques, ' restored it,' which he
did at the expense of about twenty guineas more for
stone and labour, it proved a most fortunate hit, for
they sold it for the enormous sum of one thousand
guineas! and it is now at Newby, in Yorkshire.
The late celebrated Charles Townlev and the late
Henry Blundell, Esqs., were two of his principal
customers for antiques. Mr. Nollekens was like-
wise an indefatigable inquirer after terra-cottas,
executed by the most celebrated sculptors, Michael
Angelo, John di Bologna, Fiamingo, etc. The best
of these he reserved for himself until the day of his
death.

The late Earl of Bes[s] borough and the late Lord
Selsey were much attached to Mr. Nollekens at this
time, but his greatest friend was the Lord Yar-
borough. 1 For that nobleman he executed many
very considerable works in marble, for which he
received most liberal and immediate payment.
Xollekens, who wished upon all occasions to save
every shilling he possibly could, was successful in

1 This was Charles Anderson-Pelham, raised to the peerage as
Baron Yarborough in 1794. He died in 1823. He was the father of
the first Earl. Ed.

NOLLEKENS IN ROME 39

another manoeuvre. He actually succeeded as a
smuggler of silk stockings, gloves and lace ; his
contrivance was truly ingenious, and perhaps it
was the first time that the Custom House officers
had ever been so taken in. His method was this :
All his plaster busts being hollow, he stuffed them
full of the above articles, and then spread an out-
side coating of plaster at the back across the
shoulders of each, so that the busts appeared like
solid casts. I recollect his pointing to the cast of
Sterne, and observing to the late Lord Mansfield :
' There, do you know, that busto, my lord, held
my lace ruffles that I went to Court in when I came
from Koine.'

His mode of living when at Rome was most
filthy : he had an old woman, who, as he stated,
c did for him,' and she was so good a cook that she
would often give him a dish for dinner which cost
him no more than threepence. ' Nearly opposite
to my lodgings,' he said, 'there lived a pork-
butcher, who put out at his door at the end of the
week a plateful of what he called cuttings, bits of
skin, bits of gristle, and bits of fat, which he sold
for twopence, and my old lady dished them up with
a little pepper and a little salt ; and, with a slice of
bread and sometimes a bit of vegetable, I made a
very nice dinner.' Whenever good dinners were
mentioned he was sure to say : ' Ay, I never tasted
a better dish than my Roman cuttings.'

By this time the name of Nollekens was pretty
well known on the Stock Exchange of London as a
holder to a considerable amount, and he arrived in

40 NOLLE KENS AND HIS TIMES

England time enough to take a lease of the pre-
mises, No. 9, Mortimer Street, Cavendish Square,
then the property of Francis Milner Newton, 1 Esq.,
K.A., a very indifferent portrait-painter, who had
been a pupil of Marcus Teuscher, an artist of no
great talent, but a very good man. Mr. Newton
was Muster-master of England, and srenerallv wore
the Windsor uniform, and had also been secretary
to the Royal Academy ever since its establish-
ment. This office he resigned in 1788, and died at
his house at Barton, near Taunton, in August,
1794.

Mr. Nollekens soon turned the Muster- master's
painting-room into a studio for sculpture, and was
honoured with orders from some of the first person-
ages in this countrv, who sat to him at all hours for
their busts ; and so fashionable was he in that depart-
ment of his art that I have known him to have four
sitters in a day. Our sculptor now exhibited in Pall
Mall with the Royal Academy, to which he presented
a fine cast of the torso, having brought it from
Rome for that purpose. In 177 1 2 the Academicians
chose him an Associate, and in the following vear
elected him R.A. With this election our late
gracious King, when he signed his diploma, de-

1 Born in 1720 ; foundation member and first secretary of the
Royal Academy. Ed.

2 Mr. Nollekens was invited to the funeral of Jonathan Richard-
son, jun., son of the author of the work on 'Painting,' and the
collector of many fine drawings. He died at his house in Queen
Square, and was buried in the ground belonging to the parish, behind
the Foundling Hospital, where it is recorded that he departed this life
on June G, 1771, aged seventy-six. Smith.

MARY WELCH 41

clared himself pleased in the most flattering terms
of approbation, and immediately honoured him still
more by sitting for his bnst.

Mr. Nollekens now, for the first time, fell des-
perately in love. The lady was Mary, the second
daughter of Sanders Welch, Esq., the successor in
the magistracy of his friend, Henry Fielding, on
his departure for Lisbon. This lady, the pink of
precision, bestowed her hand upon him, and they
were married at the altar of Marylebone Church in
the presence of her father and sister Anne. This
lady, w T ho will be mentioned hereafter, was mistress
of seven lan^uao-es. She was a Protestant when
she attended her sister's marriage, but became
a Roman Catholic shortly after her arrival at
Koine.

In what style of language their courtship was
carried on, how Miss Mary became better acquainted
with Master Joseph, or how far he was speech-
gifted in Love's soft lispings, I am totally ignorant ;
but it has been seen that Joseph was a c thriving
wooer.'

Marv's figure was rather too tall, but vet orace-
ful ; her eyes were good, and she knew how to
play with them ; her blooming complexion stood
in no need of milk of roses ; her nose, I must own,
and it was the opinion of Nollekens, too, was rather
of the shortest ; her teeth were small, bespeaking
a selfish disposition ; indeed, the whole of her
features were what her husband would sometimes
call c scorny,' particularly in their latter days
during their little fracas, for, be it known, she had

42 NOLLEKENS AND HIS TIMES

no small sprinkling of pride, in consequence of a
compliment paid her by Dr. Johnson. Her light
hair shone in natural and beautiful ringlets down
her back to the lower part of her tightly-laced
waist such a shaped waist as her fathers friend,
Fielding, has given Sophia Western in his c Tom
Jones.'

This ladv's interesting figure on her wedding-
day was attired in a sacque aiid petticoat of the most
expensive brocaded white silk, resembling network,
enriched with small flowers, which displayed in the
variation of the folds a most delicate shade of
pink, the uncommon beauty of which was greatly
admired. The deep and pointed stomacher was
exquisitely gimped and pinked, and at the lower
part was a large pin consisting of several diamonds,
confining an elegant point-lace apron, certainly at
that period rather unfashionable, but on this happy
event affectionately worn by the lady in memory
of her dear mother, who had presented it to her
indeed, Mrs. Nollekens was frequently heard to
declare that she was above ' the fleeting whimsies
of depraved elegance.' The sleeves of this dress
closelv fitted the arm to a little below the elbow,
from which hung three point-lace ruffles of great
depth ; a handkerchief of the same costly texture
partly concealed the beauty of her bosom, wherein,
confined by a large bow, was a bouquet of rose-
buds, the delicate tints of which were imperceptibly
blended with the transparency of her complexion,
and not a little increased the beauty of a triple row
of pearls, tied behind with a narrow white satin

MRS. N0LLEKEN8 DRESS 43

ribbon. Her beautiful auburn hair, which she
never disguised by the use of powder, according to
the fashion of the day, was upon this occasion
arranged over a cushion made to fit the head to a
considerable height, with large round curls on
either side, the whole being surmounted by a small
cap of point-lace, with plaited flaps, to correspond
with the apron and ruffles. 1 Her shoes were com-
posed of the same material as her dress, orna-
mented with silver spangles and square Bristol
buckles, with heels three inches and a half in
height, as if she meant to exult in out-topping her
little husband, whose head, even when he had his
hat on, reached no higher than her shoulder.

Mrs. Nollekens' father was at the expense of
her marriage wardrobe, which cost about 200 :
among her dresses was one of a fashionable
Carmelite, a rich purple brown, and another con-
sisted of a lavender silk, brocaded with white, and
enriched with bouquets of carnations, auriculas,
and jessamines the size of nature. The bride-
groom's dress was a suit of ' Pourpre du Pape,' silk
stockings with broad blue and white stripes, and lace
ruffles and frill, the whole of which articles he had

1 In looking at the dresses of former days, it is curious to see in
what a short time fashions rise and fall from one extreme to another.
In 1760, when the lace apron was declining in favour, a lady wore her
hair short and thin, and quite close to her head, with a small flower or
ornament on the top of her forehead, nor was it until 1769 that the
head-dress was much increased ; but in 1772 it became preposterously
high, under the most fashionable leader of the day, D. Ritchie, hair-
dresser and dentist, then living in Rupert Street, two doors from
Coventry Street. In 1777 sacques disappeared, and the large bell-
hoops came into fashion. Smith.

44 NOLLEKENS AND HIS TIMES

brought from Kome. His hair was dressed in curls
on either side, with an immense toupee, and finished
with a small bag tied as closely as possible to his
neck. Mrs. Holt, who was Mrs. Nollekens'
domestic companion for many years, and who
attended Mr. Nollekens in his last illness, has
enabled me to be thus minute in my description of
the dresses worn by the bride and bridegroom.

Mrs. Nollekens had a tolerable stock of reading
and a pretty good memory, but no sound knowledge
of any of the superior accomplishments of her sex,
as her youthful studies went very little beyond
delicate needlework and translating French. She
never knew the pleasures of a mother, for, in her
opinion, ' children were serious responsibilities ' ;
and her matrimonial amusements were not like
those of the good Vicar of Wakefield's wife, for I
never heard of her making gooseberry wine : a
game at cribbage, or a rubber at whist, was her
delight ; but then she made it a rule never to risk
more than sixpence the rub, for which resolution
most well-thinking persons will give her credit ;
but then, when primly seated, she would insist
upon the nice precision of the game, as her mother
played it, c according to Hoyle, Mr. Edward Hojde.' 1
In this way of passing time, for she knew nothing
of drawing or j)ainting, she would now and then,
when at home, coax her Nolly to join her ; but
rarely suffered him to touch a card when they were

1 Mrs. Nollekens recollected that Hoyle, the author of a treatise on
the game of whist, was buried at Marylebone, August 23, 1769, and
that he was ninety years old when he died. Smith.

ATHENIAN STUART 45

visiting, on account of his playing so ill that he
was sure to lose.

It gives me the highest gratification to observe
that painting is now considered so essential a branch
of polite education that many persons, who are dis-
tinguished both for elegance and fashion, are never
more delighted than when they are engaged in its
interesting pursuits. When Mrs. Nollekens was a
girl, Goupy, 1 her father's intimate friend, was con-
sidered the most eminent of the fan-painters ; and
so fashionable was fan-painting at that time, that
the family of Athenian Stuart placed him as a pupil
to that artist, conceiving that by so doing they had
made his fortune. Stuart's genius, however, in a
short time soared to the pinnacle of fame by flying
to Athens for those inestimable treasures which will
immortalize his name, notwithstanding Hogarth's
satire upon the publication of his first volume ;
for, indeed, we have not now a student who speaks
of Stuart without the honourable surname of
c Athenian.'

Some years before I had any connection with
Mr. Nollekens as an instructor, my intercourse with
him was frequent, notwithstanding the disparity of
our ages ; and he has often taken me to walk with
him in various parts of London, when he seemed to
feel a pleasure in pointing out curious vestiges and
alterations to my notice, as well as in showing me
some remarkable sights of the time. Perhaps these
communications gave the first impetus to that love

1 Joseph Goupy, a Frenchman, the drawing-master of Frederick,
Prince of Wales. He died in 1763. Ed.

46 NOLLEKENS AND HIS TIMES

for Metropolitan antiquities which I entertained so
early, and which even now continues unabated.
His recollections of many of the places we visited
often furnished me with curious and interesting
pictures of London as it appeared in his own youth ;
and several of the most singular of them I have
ventured to introduce into these anecdotes.

[47]

CHAPTER II.

Execution of Sixteen-string Jack Model of the King's state coach
Sir Nathaniel Dance Holland Tradesmen's signs sometimes painted
by eminent artists Costly one of Shakespeare exposed for sale
Ignatius Sancho Mortimer the painter and Mr. Payne Knight
Duke of Monmouth's house in Soho Marylebone basin and gardens
and Cockney Ladle Fruit-gardens in Gower Street Commence-
ment of my own acquaintance with Nollekens His servant Bronze
Hudson's sale of prints, and anecdote of Sir J. Reynolds Nol-
lekens' recollections of London Athenian Stuart Colonel King
Residents of rank in Soho Streets visible at one point Nollekens'
first print and subsequent collection Recollections of his mother
Farthing posts and early newspapers Characteristics of Mrs.
Nollekens Dr. Johnson's bust by Nollekens His odd conduct to
his sisters His parsimonious habits His monument for Dr.
Goldsmith.

I remember well, when I was in my eighth year,
Mr. Nollekens calling at my father's house in Great
Portland Street, and taking me to Oxford Eoad to
see the notorious Jack Rann, commonly called
4 Sixteen-string Jack,' go to Tyburn to be hanged
for robbing Dr. William Bell, in Gunnersbury Lane,
of his watch and eighteen-pence in money ; for
which he received sentence of death on Tuesday,
October 26, 1774. The criminal was dressed in a
pea-green coat, with an immense nosegay in the
buttonholes, which had been presented to him at

48 NOLLE KENS AND HLS TIMES

St. Sepulchre's steps ; and his nankeen small-clothes,
we were told, were tied at each knee with sixteen
strings. After he had passed, and Mr. Nollekens
was leading me home by the hand, I recollect his
stooping down to me and observing, in a low tone
of voice : ' Tom, now, my little man, if my father-
in-law, Mr. Justice Welch, had been High Constable,
we could have walked by the side of the cart all
the way to Tyburn.'

I also remember, one Sunday morning, going
with my father and Mr. Nollekens to see the studio
and workshop of the late Joseph Wilton, 1 Esq., K. A.,
father of the present Lady Chambers, and friend of
Barretti. Wilton, on his return from his travels,
brought Capizzoldi and Cipriani 2 to this country.
Mr. Wilton's studio stood on the south side of
Queen Anne Street East, now called Foley Place,
upon the site of five houses, Nos. 22, 23, 3 24, 25,
and 26 ; in the house No. 27, at the corner of Fort-
land Street, Mr. Wilton resided for many years.
We viewed his works, and the model of King
George III.'s state coach, a most beautiful little
toy, exquisitely adorned with ornaments modelled
in wax by Capizzoldi and Yoyers, the panels being
painted in water-colours by Cipriani. The designs
consisted of figures and historical emblems, and

1 Joseph Wilton (1722-1803), the sculptor. See prefatory essay.
Ed,

2 Giovanni Battista Cipriani, born in Florence in 1727, arrived in
England in 1756, became a foundation member of the Royal Academy,
and died in 1785. Ed.

3 No. 23 was the residence of Edward Malone, Esq., the well-known
editor of Shakespeare. Smith.

SIGN-PAINTERS 49

Cipriani also painted the same subjects upon the
coach itself ; but he was not the first eminent artist
who had tlms adorned a carriage, or even painted a
sign. The old royal state coach was purchased by
the City of London, the panels of which were
repainted by Dance, 1 afterwards Sir Nathaniel
Dance Holland, Bart., who was the painter of that
most admirable whole-length picture of Garrick in
' Richard III.,' now in the front drawing-room of
Sir Watkin Williams Wynn, Bart., in his town
mansion, St. James's Square.

Mr. Smirke, 2 the celebrated artist, also served
his time under a herald-painter, of the name of
Bromley, who died lately in Queen Street, Lincoln's
Inn Fields.

George Morland 3 painted a sign of a white lion
for a public -house at Paddington.

Monamy, 4 the famous marine-painter, decorated
a carriage for the gallant and unfortunate Admiral
Byng, with ships and naval trophies ; and he also
painted a portrait of Admiral Vernon's ship, for a
famous public-house of the day, well known by the
sign of the 'Porto Bello,' remaining until recently
within a few doors north of the church in St.
Martin's Lane. After the battle of Culloden, most
of the old signs of military and naval victors gave
way to the head of Duke William ; and Horace

1 Nathaniel Dance (1734-1811), a foundation member of the Royal
Academy. En.

2 Robert Smirke (1752-1845), elected A.R.A. in 1791, and R.A. in
1793. He was a great illustrator of books. Ed.

3 George Morland (1763-1804), the famous animal-painter. Ed.

4 Pierre Monamy (1G70-1749), an imitator of Van de Velde. Ed.

4

5o NOLLEKENS AND HIS TIMES

Walpole has noticed this change in his thirteenth
letter to Mr. Conway, dated April 16, 1747.

1 1 was,' says that elegant author, ' yesterday out
of town, and the very signs, as I passed through the
villages, made me make very quaint reflections on
the mortality of fame and popularity. I observed
how the Duke's head had succeeded almost uni-
versally to Admiral Vernon's, as his had left but
few traces of the Duke of Ormond's. I pondered
these things in my heart, and said unto myself,
Surely all glory is but as a sign !'

Clarkson, the portrait-painter, was originally a
coach-panel and sign painter ; and he executed that
most elaborate one of Shakespeare 1 which formerly
hung across the street at the north-east corner of
Little Russell Street, in Drury Lane ; the late Mr.
Thomas Grignon informed me that he had often
heard his father say that this sign cost 500. In
my boyish days it was for many years exposed for
sale for a very trifling sum at a broker's shop in
Lower Brook Street, Grosvenor Square. The late
Mr. Crace, of Great Queen Street, assured me that
it was in his early days a thing that country people
would stand and gaze at, and that that corner of the
street was hardly passable.

Charles Catton, 2 Esq., R.A., was also in early
life a coach and sign painter ; he painted a lion as a
sign for his friend Wright, a famous coach-maker,

1 Edwards has erroneously given Wale the credit of this sign.
Smith. Nathaniel Clarkson was born in 1724, and died in 1795. Ed.

2 Charles Catton, the landscape-painter, was born in 1728, was a
foundation member of the Royal Academy, and died in 1798. Ed.

IGNATIUS SANCHO 51

at that time living in Long Acre. This picture,
though it has weathered many a storm, is still
visible at the coach- maker's on the west side of
Well Street, Oxford Street. Baker, 1 a famous
flower-painter, decorated coach -panels with borders
and wreaths of flowers ; and he made a most
splendid display of his taste on the panels of the
coach of the famous Dr. Ward, who enjoyed almost
the whole practice of his profession, after he had
so successfully set the sprained thumb of King-
George II. Richard Wilson, the landscape-painter,
once condescended to paint a sign of the ' Three
Logger Heads,' for the house so called, near the
spot where he died.

In June, 1780, Mr. Nollekens took me to the
house of Ignatius Sancho, 2 who kept a grocer's, or,
rather, chandler's shop at No. 20, Charles Street,
Westminster, a house still standing at the south-
west corner of Crown Court. Mr. Nollekens having
recollected that he had promised him a cast of his
friend ; Sterne's bust, I had the honour of carrying
it ; and as we pushed the wicket door, a little
tinkling bell, the usual appendage to such shops,

1 John Baker, born in 1736, was a foundation member of the Royal
Academy, and died in 1771. Ed.

2 An extraordinary literary character, a negro, who was born on
board a slave-ship in 1729. He was patronized by the Duke of
Montague, who made him his butler, and left him a legacy and an
annuity at his death, when he took the shop above-mentioned. In his
leisure hours he indulged his taste for music, painting, and literature,
which procured him the acquaintance of several persons of distinction.
He was the author of some pieces of poetry and a tract on the
' Theory of Music '; and his letters, with his life by Jekyll, were pub-
lished after his death for the benefit of his family. Smith.

52 NOLLEKENS AND HIS TIMES

announced its opening. We drank tea with Sanclio
and his black lady, who was seated when we entered
in the corner of the shop, chopping sugar, sur-
rounded by her little \ Sanchonets.' Sancho, know-
ing Mr. Nollekens to be a loyal man, said to him,
' I am sure you will be pleased to hear that Lord
George Gordon is taken, and that a party of the
guards is now escorting him in an old ramshackled
coach to the Tower.' Nollekens said not a word,
and poor Sancho either did not know or did not
recollect that he was addressing a Papist.

I can also recall Sancho's visiting Mr. Nollekens'
studio ; he spoke well of art, and gave the f ollowing*
anecdote of the late Richard Payne Knight 1 and
Mortimer 2 the painter, with the latter of whom he
was extremely intimate. Mr. Knight happening to
call upon Mortimer at his house in Church Court,
Covent Garden, expressed his uneasiness at the
melancholy mood in which he found him. ' Why,
sir,' observed Mortimer, ' I have many noble and
generous friends, it is true ; but of all my patrons,
I don't know one whom I could now ask to purchase
an hundred guineas' worth of draivings of me, and
I am at this moment seriously in want of that sum.'
' Well, then,' observed Mr. Knight, ' bring as many
sketches as you would part with for that sum to me
to-morrow, and dine with me.' This he did, and
enjoyed his bottle. Mr. Knight gave him two

1 This eminent antiquary and collector was born in 1750, and died
in 1824. Ed.

2 John Hamilton Mortimer, born in 1741, was an eminent cricketer
and a painter of high ambition. He was elected A.R.A. at the close
of 1778, but died of fever a few weeks later, February 4, 1779. Ed.

THE DUKE OF MONMOUTH'S HOUSE 53

hundred guineas, which he insisted the drawings
were worth ; and on this splendid reception,
Mortimer, who was no starter, took so much wine
that the next morning he knew not how he got
home.

About twelve o'clock at noon his bedside was
visited by the late ' Memory Cooke,' who, after
hearing him curse his stupidity in losing his two
hundred guineas, produced the bag ! c Here, my
good fellow !' cried Cooke, ' here is your money.
Fortunately you knocked me up, and emptied your
pockets on my table, after which I procured a
coach and sent you home.'

Ignatius Sancho died December 14, 1780, at his
house already mentioned, and was buried in the
Broadway, Westminster.

Mr. Nollekens, on his way to the Roman Catholic
chapel in Duke Street, Lincoln's Inn Fields, where
he was christened, stopped to show me the dilapida-
tions of the Duke of Monmouth's house in Soho
Square. It was on the south side, and occupied the
site of the houses which now stand in Bateman's
Buildings ; and though the workmen were employed
in pulling it down, we ventured to go in. The gate
entrance was of massive ironwork supported by
stone piers, surmounted by the crest of the owner
of the house ; and within the gates there was a
spacious courtyard for carriages. The hall was
ascended by steps. There were eight rooms on the
ground-floor ; the principal one was a dining-room
towards the south, the carved and gilt panels of
which had contained whole-length pictures. At the

54 NOLLE KENS AND HIS TIMES

corners of the ornamented ceiling, which was of
plaster, and over the chimney-piece, the Dnke of
Monmouth's arms were displayed.

From a window we descended into a paved yard,
surrounded by a red brick wall with heavy stone
copings, which was, to the best of my recollection,
full twenty-five feet in height. The staircase was
of oak, the steps very low, and the landing-places
were tessellated with woods of light and dark
colours, similar to those now remaining on the
staircase of Lord Russell's house, late Lowe's Hotel,
Covent Garden, and in several rooms of the British
Museum.

As we ascended, I remember Mr. Nollekens
noticing the busts of Seneca, Caracalla, Trajan,
Adrian, and several others, upon ornamented
brackets. The principal room on the first-floor,
which had not been disturbed by the workmen, was
lined with blue satin, superbly decorated with
pheasants and other birds in gold. The chimney-
piece was richly ornamented with fruit and foliage,
similar to the carvings which surround the altar of
St. James's Church, Piccadilly, so beautifully exe-
cuted by Grinling Gibbons. In the centre over this
chimney-piece, within a wreath of oak-leaves, there
was a circular recess which evidently had been
designed for the reception of a bust. The beads of
the panels of the brown window- shutters, which
were very lofty, were gilt ; and the piers between
the windows, from stains upon the silk, had pro-
bably been filled with looking-glasses. The scaffold-
ing, ladders, and numerous workmen rendered it too

MARYLEBONE BASIN 55

dangerous for us to go higher, or see more of this
most interesting house.

My father had, however, made a drawing of the
external front of it, which I engraved for my first
work, entitled ' Antiquities of London,' which has
been noticed by Mr. Pennant 1 in his valuable and
entertaining anecdotes of the Metropolis.

One Sunday morning Mr. Nollekens took me to
see the boys bathe in Marylebone basin. As we
were ^ohis:, our attention was engaged by the
beadles of the parish seizing the clothes of the lads
who had gone into the small pond called Cockney
Ladle, supplied with water by an arm which looked
like a ladle from the basin ; this Cockney Ladle
stood on the north of Portland Chapel, very near
the spot now occupied by Mr. Booth, the bookseller,
in Duke Street. The basin which was a very
large circular and deep pond, fatal to many an
inexperienced youth was farther in the fields on
the site of part, of Portland Place and Mansfield
Street. A small portion of the pond, denominated
c The Six-and-Thirty,' still remains on the west
side of the once-intended Carmarthen Square, at
the end of Upper Gower Street, nearly opposite to
the house in which I now reside a part of the
town, until very lately, so perfectly healthy and
free from the London smoke that at No. 33 in
Gower Street a house till within these few years
inhabited by the late Colonel Sutherland, well
known at print-auctions, as well as to portrait-
collectors, as a most extensive embellisher of

1 Thomas Pennant, the naturalist (172G-1798). Ed.

56 NOLLE KENS AND HIS TIMES

Clarendon's ' History of his Own Times ' grapes
were ripened by the sun in the open air at the back-
parlour window.

Lord Eldon often speaks of the fine fruit of
Gow r er Street, which his lordship enjoyed when he
lived in the house now No. 42 ; indeed, he has
also spoken in open court of the sad effect the
smoke of London had upon his garden in Gower
Street. A still more extraordinary fact is, that
even so late as the year 1800, William Bentham,
Esq., of No. 6, Upper Gower Street (a gentleman
whose well-chosen collection of English topography
is unquestionably the most select and perfect of
any formed within my memory), had nearly twenty -
five dozen of the finest-looking and most delicious
nectarines, all fit for the table, gathered from three
completely exposed trees ; and even since that time,
the same garden, of the same gentleman, has pro-
duced the richest-flavoured celerv in the greatest
abundance.

The orchestra of Marylebone Gardens, before
which I have listened with my grandmother to hear
Tommy Lowe sing, stood upon the site of the house
now No. 17 in Devonshire Place, and very near
where Mr. Fountain's boarding-school stood, nearly
opposite to the old church, still standing in High
Street. Mr. Fountain, who succeeded Mr. De la
Place in this school, w r as once w r alking with Handel
round Marylebone Gardens, and upon hearing music
which he could not understand, observed to Handel,
' This is d d stuff !' c It may be d d stuff, but
it is mine,' rejoined Handel.

NOLLEKENS HABITS tj

Upon the death of my mother, in 1779, Mr.
Nollekens, upon seeing some of my attempts in
wax-modelling, kindly invited me into his studio.
At that time my father was his principal assistant,
and there I was employed in making drawings from
his models of monuments, assisting in casting, and
finally, though in a very unimportant degree, and
with the humblest talent, in carving ; but I must
state that I was entirely supported by my father,
and I solemnly declare that from the hour of my
first seeing Mr. Nollekens till the time of his deatli
I never received, either directly or indirectly, the
slightest remuneration from him, though whilst I
was with him I have often stood to him as a model.
Indeed, the only present he ever made me was three
boxes of what had been black chalk, which he
brought from Florence ; but it was so gray and
rotten that it would not bear cutting, and was
therefore worth nothing. This he knew upon
asking me how I liked it, and his answer was,
' Well, never mind, I shall give yon cause to
remember me in a better way.'

My being often closeted with him as his model,
assisting him in casting, etc., gave me frequent
opportunities of seeing and hearing much, particu-
larly of his domestic habits, and the observations
made by his sitters and visitors, who were persons
of learning, rank, or beauty. As I have sometimes
diverted my friends with a good-lmmonred imitation
of Mr. and Mrs. Nollekens, I shall occasionally
insert a few of their dialogues, which have either
fallen under my own notice or were related to me

58 NOLLEKENS AND HIS TIMES

by their old servant, Elizabeth Rosina Clements.
She was a woman possessing a considerable share of
drollery ; and from her complexion being of a
chestnut - brown colour, somewhat tinctured with
olive, she acquired from the shopkeepers, particu-
larly those of Oxford Market, the nickname of
Black Bet, but from the artists the more classical
appellation of Bronze, under which she will here-
after be mentioned. Indeed, she might very well
call to mind the expression of Petrarch, who
describes his female servant as being ' brown as a
Libyan desert, and dry as a mummy.'

Langforcl, who was the most fashionable auctioneer
of his day, occupied the rooms in Co vent Garden
now held bv Messrs. Robins, in the largest of which
he sold that truly valuable collection of prints and
drawings accumulated by Thomas Hudson, 1 the
master of Sir Joshua Reynolds, and the most
celebrated portrait-painter of his time. Though no
very great artist, Hudson showed considerable ambi-
tion and taste in his selection of the best specimens
of art for his portfolios, particularly in the produc-
tions of the Dutch schools. The choice impressions
which he had accumulated from the plates of Rem-
brandt, and his various and numerous drawings also
from the hand of that wonderful master, would
lead us to conclude him to have been his greatest
favourite ; indeed, so extensive and precious were
they that, I am informed, any ten collections united
would not have equalled his either in merit or in
number.

1 Thomas Hudson died in 1779, aged seventy-eight. Ed.

THE STREETS OF LONDON 59

At this sale Mr. Nollekens was a constant atten-
dant, and lie generally took me with him. I recollect
Sir Joshua Reynolds who was present one evening
when a drawing was knocked down to his pupil and
agent, Mr. Score 1 after he had expatiated upon the
extraordinary pow r ers of Rembrandt, assuring a
gentleman with whom he was conversing that the
effect which pleased him most in all his own pictures
was that displayed in the one of Lord Ligonier on
horseback, of which there is an engraving by Fisher,
the chiaro-oscnro of which he conceived from a rnde
woodcut upon a halfpenny ballad, which he pur-
chased from the w r all of St. Anne's Church in
Princes Street.

Another time, as we were going to view the same
curious collection, Mr. Nollekens stopped at the
corner of Rathbone Place, and observed that when
he was a little boy his mother often took him to
the top of that street to walk by the side of a long
pond near a windmill, which then stood on the site
of the chapel in Charlotte Street ; and that a half-
penny was paid by every person at a hatch belonging
to the miller for the privilege of w r alking in his
grounds. He also told me that his mother took
him through another halfpenny hatch in the fields
between Oxford Road and Grosvenor Square, the
north side of which was then building. When we
got to the brewhonse between Rathbone Place and
the end of Tottenham Court Road he said he
recollected thirteen large and fine w r alnnt - trees
standing on the north side of the highway between

1 William Score, the Devonshire portrait-painter. Ed.

60 NOLLE KENS AND HLS TIMES

what was then vulgarly called Hanover Yard, after-
wards Hanway Yard, and now Hanway Street, and
the Castle Inn beyond the Star Brewery.

I remember ^oiiis; w ith Mr. Nollekens to see his
old friend Athenian Stuart, though he had treated
him so scurvily. Stuart lived on the south side of
Leicester Fields ; he had built a large room at the
back of his house, in which were several of his
drawings, particularly those he had made for a
continuation of his work ; they were in body
colours, and in stvle resembled those of Marco
Ricci. His parlour, where we remained until a
shower of rain was over, was decorated with some
of Hogarth's most popular prints, and upon a fire-
screen he had pasted an impression of the plate
called the ' Periwigs,' a print which Mr. Stuart
always showed his visitors as Hogarth's satire upon
his first volume of ' Athenian Antiquities.'

Mr. Stuart, though short, was not a fat, but
rather a heavy-looking, man, and his face declared
him to be fond of what is called friendly society.
In his later days he regularly frequented a public -
house on the north side of Leicester Fields, of the
sign of the Feathers, which then stood upon the
site of part of the ground of Mr. Burford's
Panorama ; and of these friendly meetings he
would frequently endeavour to persuade Nollekens
to become a member.

When we had left Mr. Stuart's house, Mr.
Nollekens pointed out the one in St. Martin's
Street that had been inhabited by Sir Isaac
Newton, which he said was then occupied by his

COLONEL KING 61

friend Dr. Burney, 1 who was visited by all the
learned personages of the day. I have been
favoured with a curious anecdote of Dr. Burney
and Mr. Nollekens by my friend Lieutenant- Colonel
Phillips, one of the two surviving gentlemen who
went round the world with Captain Cook, which the
reader will find in a subsequent page.

Whilst we were standing at the end of Rathbone
Place waiting for a coach for Mr. Nollekens now
and then indulged in a shilling fare, particularly
when he was going into the city to purchase stock,
or to the Royal Academy, when he was chosen
visitor he said, pointing to the house east of the
undertaker's, now No. 23 : i There lived Colonel
King, 2 one of my father's oldest friends ; he was
a very great collector of all sorts of singular
things, and had a very curious old shield which
belonged to the famous Dr. Woodward, 3 who was
intimately acquainted with the great Sir Christopher
Wren.

' Colonel King was very good-natured to me and
my brothers, and whenever my father used to take
us to drink coffee with him, we had our three-

1 Charles Burney, the historian of music (1726-1814). Ed.

2 Colonel Kichard King died in 1767, in his eighty-fourth year. He
was visited by Pope and other celebrated men, and was executor to
Dr. Woodward. Smith.

3 This shield, which is now in the British Museum, has been
erroneously attributed to Benvenuto Cellini. It is certainly of the
time of Henry VIII., but of very coarse and inferior workmanship.
I find by a letter in the fourth volume of ' Biographia Adversaria,'
in the British Museum, that the Doctor's shield sold at the sale of
Colonel King, to whom he had bequeathed it, for the sum of 40.
Smith.

62 NOLLEKENS AND HIS TIMES

cornered silver-laced hats on ; so we had on
Sundays, when we used to go into St. James's
Park, with our ruffles and canes ; I remember it
very well.' When we had entered Soho Square,
among many other remarks, he said that when he
was a little boy, and lived in Dean Street, where
he was born, at the house now No. 28, there were
no fewer than four Ambassadors lived in that
Square, and that at that time it was the most
fashionable place for the nobility. 1 He also told
me that Baptiste, the famous flower-painter, with
whom he said his father was extremely intimate,
lived and died in the corner house, pointing to the
one now No. 18. 'And do you know,' added he,
4 that I have often stood for hours together, to see
the water run out of the jugs of the old river-gods
into the basin in the middle of the square ; but,'
he continued, c the water never would run out of
their jugs, but when the windmill was going round
at the top of Rathbone Place.' This windmill
stood upon the site of Percy Chapel, in Charlotte
Street, and the spring, wljich supplied the long
pond before it, now remains in the cellar of Elisha,
a bricklayer, behind the chapel.

When we arrived at the French 'Change, Nolle-

1 It appears from the books of the parish of St. Anne, which I have
frequently searched, that between the years 1708 and 1772 the follow-
ing persons of rank had inhabited Soho Square, viz. : Lord Berkeley,
Lord Byron, Lord Carlisle, Lord Grimstone, Lord Howard, Lord
Leicester, Sir Thomas Mansel, Lord Macclesfield, Lord Morpeth,
Lord Nottingham, Lord Onslow, Lord Peterborough, Lord Pierre-
point, Lord Pigot, Sir Cloudesley Shovel, and several Ambassadors.
Smith.

WALKS IN LONDON 63

kens exclaimed : ' There, Tom, stand here, and yon
will see the entrances of nine streets ; my mother
showed them to me. There, stand just there, and
don't turn vonr head, onlv vonr eyes ' niacins: me,
with both his hands upon my shoulders, at about
fifteen feet from Grafton Street, nearly in the
centre of Moor Street. c There, now look to the
left : is not there Monmouth Street ? now let your
eye run along over the way to the first opening :
that's Great White Lion Street ; well, now bring
your eye back to the opposite street in front of
you : that's Little Earl Street. Throw your eye
over the Seven Dials, and you'll see Queen Street
and Earl Street ; well, now look on the right of
Little Earl Street, and you will see Tower Street :
well, now stand still, mind, don't move, bring your
eye back towards you, and turn it a little to the
right, and you will see West Street ; bring it
nearer to the right, and there's Grafton Street ;
and then, look down at your toes, and you'll find
yourself standing in Moor Street.'

He also made me his companion in his Sunday
evening walks, as he of later years did Joseph
Bonomi, 1 a truly deserving youth, to whom it was
generally supposed that he would have left a con-
siderable part of his immense property, from his
long-continued attachment to him from his birth ;
but he, however, as well as many other real friends,
was disappointed.

1 This gentleman, who was born in 1796, survived until 1878. He
was curator of the Soane Museum, and a distinguished Egyptolo-
gist. Ed.

64 NOLLE KENS AND HLS TIMES

In one of our amusing perambulations, he
stopped opposite to a public-house in Vine Street,
Piccadilly, very near the house formerly occupied
by his master, Scheemakers, and said : ' There,
Tom, stand just there ; now, mind what I am
going to tell, and listen to it ; it was in that very
house, over the way, I got the first print I ever
possessed in my life.'

This was an impression of Pesne's engraving of
the ' Death of Eudamidas,' after a picture painted
by Nicholas Poussin ; and the way in which
Xollekens became possessed of this print was both
cunning and curious. He knew that the landlord
of the public-house, with whom he frequently held
conversations as to bell-tolling, had sailed and
fought with Admiral Vernon, and knowing, also,
that he could purchase of another bell -tolling
friend a large engraving of the ' Siege of Porto
Bello,' for the small sum of one shilling, as it was
the size of Poussin's print, he ventured to propose
an exchange. To this proposition the landlord
made no objection, nor did his wife ; so away little
Joey posted to his friend, who was a broker, living
in Great Brewer Street, parted with his shilling,
and on the next washing-day, when Mrs. Schee-
makers requested him, as the maids were busy, to
go for the porter, he took ; Porto Bello ' under his
arm, with as much joy as the old Admiral received
the enemy's colours, and obtained the print which
he had so often looked at with so longing an eye.
Afterwards, when he became possessed of wealth,
he formed a very capital collection of Poussin's

FLEET PRISONERS 65

works, 1 from which it has been asserted that he
borrowed many attitudes for his monumental
figures. Poussin's draperies were likewise so
highly esteemed by him that he frequently adopted
them, as this painter's drapery falls well, mostly in
grand and broad folds,, and is unquestionably the
easiest for carving, having no flutter, which is a
style not only troublesome to execute in marble,
but extremely expensive to cut, and bad in effect
when accomplished.

At another time, when he took me with him to
his stockbroker's, as we were going up Ludgate
Hill, he said that he recollected his mother taking
him, when he was only four years old, to see St.
Paul's ; and that, in going up that street, he
observed a man running backwards and forwards
shaking a box, into which many of the passengers
put money, and that she told him it was for the
poor prisoners in the Fleet, being called 'the
running box.' In Marcellus Lauron's ' Cries of
London,' published about the year 1710, there is a
representation of such a person, with his cry of
4 Kemember the poor prisoners !' inscribed beneath
him. At his back a capacious covered basket is
suspended by leathern straps round his arms for
broken victuals ; and he carries in one hand a staff,

1 This interesting and truly valuable collection of Poussin's prints,
to which Mr. Nollekens had added even in his most feeble and
childish state, was sold, after his death, by Mr. Evans, of Pall Mall,
together with many other fine engravings which Mr. Nollekens had
indulged in from several of Langford's and Christie's sales, to the
latter of which rooms he was a constant visitor for nearly half a
century. Smith.

5

66 NOLLEKENS AND HIS TIMES

and in the other a small round deep box, with an
aperture in the lid for receiving of alms in money.
Nollekens always spoke well of his mother,
observing that she was a very curious woman,
and in his recollections of her stated that she pos-
sessed an ivory model of the Holy Sepulchre ;
that she remembered seeing the rebels, in 1745,
brought into London, confined at the backs of
the horse-soldiers ; that they were brought from
Scotland through Tottenham Court Road, along^
Hog Lane, now called Crown Street, on their
way to the Horse Guards ; and that she used
to take in a newspaper, entitled All Alive and
Merry; or, The London Daily Post, which was
published at a farthing, and printed by c A Merry
Man.' 1 The full title and imprint of this curious
paper are, 4 All- Alive and Merry ; or, The London
Daily Post. London : Printed for A. Merryman,
and sold by the Hawkers.' It consisted of a small
folio half- sheet, having three columns of letter-

1 The following anecdote, given at this place by Smith in the first
edition of his ' Life of Nollekens,' was omitted in the second, I know
not for what reason : ' I have several times heard Mr. Nollekens
observe that he frequently had seen Hogarth, when a young man,
saunter round Leicester Fields, with his master's sickly child hanging
its head over his shoulder ; and whilst we are speaking of that eminent
and eccentric artist, I may remark that my father once asked Barry
the painter if he had ever seen Hogarth. " Yes, once," he replied.
" I was walking with Joe Nollekens through Cranbourne Alley, when,
he exclaimed, ' There, there's Hogarth.' ' What !' said I, ' that little
man in the sky-blue coat ? ! Off I ran, and though I lost sight of him
only for a moment or two, when I turned the corner into Cattle Street
he was patting one of two quarrelling boys on the back, and looking
steadfastly at the expression in the coward's face, cried, ( D n him I
if I would take it of him ! At him again !' " '--Ed.

NEWSPAPERS 67

press on each side ; and several specimens of it
may be seen in the late Dr. Burney's Collection of
Newspapers in the British 'Museum, vol. iii. for
1741. It is probable that the London Gazette may
be considered as the origin of most of the cheap
and popular news journals of the last century, since
the name of that paper w^as derived from one first
published at Venice, the price of which was a coin
called a gazet, which, says Coryat in his ' Crudi-
ties ' (London, 1776, 8vo., vol. ii., p. 15), 4 is almost
a penny, whereof ten do make a liver, that is nine-
pence.'

The first of this paper printed in England super-
seded the Intelligence and News, conducted by
Eoger L'Estrange, Esq., and appeared in 1665,
No. 1 containing the public events from November
7 to 14, under the title of the Oxford Gazette, it
being published in that city every Tuesday, since
the Court was assembled there on account of the
plague being in London. It was, however, also
reprinted in the Metropolis, and upon the removal
of the Court the name was altered to that of the
London Gazette, the first of which, No. 24, Febru-
ary 1 to 5, 1665-66, was published on a Monday.
Those papers, however, the names of which were
expressive of their price, do not seem to have been
published until half a century afterwards ; but on
July 19, 1715, appeared No. 1 of The Penny Post;
on March 13 following, No. 1 of The Penny Post ;
or, Tradesman s Select Pacquet ; on October 19 ,
1720, No. 1 of The Penny Weekly Journal; or,
Saturday Evening's Entertainment ; and in 1724-25

68 NOLLEKENS AND HIS TIMES

a vet cheaper publication was printed, called The
Halfpenny London Journal; or, Tlie British
Oracle ; whilst three other halfpenny posts Avere
published three times every week (Nichols's
' Literary Anecdotes of the Eighteenth Century,'
London, 1812, 8vo., vol. i., p. 312 ; vol. iv., pp. 58,
86, 89, 90, 92, 94).

The farthing posts, however, appear chiefly to
have been in circulation durino; the vears 1740-1743 :
and in the Gentleman's Magazine for November,
1740, vol. x., pp. 557, 558, the 'Craftsman' of
November 22 complains that the revenue was
greatly defrauded by the printers and publishers
of halfpenny and farthing posts, which Avere
publicly Amended about the streets, without stamps,
in equal defiance both of the law and the penalty.
It is added, that though they had been frequently
informed against, yet that the persons concerned
in them Avere supposed to be such ' poor, low
AA-retches,' living in obscure parts of the town, or
in the rules of the Fleet, and other prisons, that
their discoA^ery Avould be very difficult ; whilst a
suspicion is also hinted that they were supported
by persons in power against the opposition papers
and publishers. In plate iv. of the ' Rake's Pro-
gress ' Hogarth has introduced a boy intently
occupied in reading a paper, on which is inscribed,
' The Farthing Post.' The stamping of neAvs-
papers on single sheets or half-sheets first took
place on August 2, 1712.

But to return now from Mr. Nollekens' reminis-
cences to his own memoirs. The parsimonious

MRS. NOLLE KENS' PARSIMONY 69

disposition of his partner seemed to take no delight
in alleviating the sorrows of the widow or assisting
the endeavours of the fatherless ; at least, I never
heard of her trespassing on her purse that way :
on the contrary, she would, like Penny's picture of
a quack-doctor, 1 look about for the bit of bacon to
take from the distressed family, as will appear by
the following trait of character. At the corner of
her house there was a small part of the street
railed in, on which she gave a poor woman leave
to place a table with a few apples for sale upon a
bit of an old napkin.

To this miserablv-hooded widow she was seen to
go, when she intended to treat the family with a
dumpling, with the question of, c Pray, Goody, how
many apples can you let me have for a penny ?'
' Bless your kindness ! you shall have three.'
J Three !' exclaimed the lady, smiling ; ' no, you
must let me have four ;' and touching her left
thumb with the forefinger of her right hand, she
continued, c f or there's my husband, myself, and
two servants, and we must have one apiece !'
s Well,' observed the miserable dependent, c you
must take them !' Whilst eighteen-pence was the
price of half a calf's head, it was a dish of which
she was c passionately fond ' ; but when it exceeded
that amount, something else was thought of ' by
way of a change ' : indeed, she would observe that

1 From this picture by Penny, who was Professor of Painting in
the Royal Academy, there is an engraving entitled ' The Rapacious
Quack.' Smith. Edward Penny (1714-1791) was a foundation
member of the Royal Academy, and the earliest Professor of Painting
there. Ed.

70 NOLLE KENS AND LILS TIMES

' those people who live aloof from the blandish-
ments of a Court have little occasion for a super-
fluity at their tables.'

When she went to Oxford Market to beat the
rounds, in order to discover the cheapest chops,
she would walk round several times to give her
dog Cerberus an opportunity of picking up scraps.
However, of this mode of manoeuvring she was at
last ashamed, bv the rude remarks of the vulgar
butchers, who had been complained of to her Nolly,
for having frequently cried out: 'Here comes Mrs.
Nollekens and her bull-bitch !'

She took a particular pleasure in assisting her
friends at card-parties with ' economical recipes,' of
which she accumulated a tolerable stock ; and the
following was one she much recommended to the
mammas of very delicate young ladies, for whom
the physician had prescribed ass's milk : 'To make
Mock Ass's Milk. Three parts barley-water and
one part milk, to be boiled together, and sweetened
with fine sugar ; half an ounce of barley to a pint,
the first water to be thrown away.' There was one
recipe which Mr. Nollekens always wrote himself
on little ragged strips of paper, which he cut ofi
the margins of his prints, and of which he kept
several in his pocket-book, to give to any persons
he met afflicted with the jaundice, and now and
then a pert jackanapes, by way of a quiz, would
apply for one : ' For jaundice, take every morning
a new-laid egg ; let it be broke into a cup, and
swallow it, the white and the yolk.'

During the time I was with him, he now and

BUST OF DR. JOHNSON ft

then gave a dinner, particularly when his steadfast
friend Lord Yarborough, then the Hon. Mr. Pelham,
sent his annual present of venison ; and it is most
surprising to consider how many persons of good
sense and high talent visited Mrs. Nollekens,
though it probably was principally owing to the
^ood character her father and sister held in society.
Dr. Johnson and Miss Williams were often there,
and they generally arrived in a hackney-coach, on
account of Miss Williams' blindness. When the
Doctor sat to Mr. Nollekens for his bust, he was
very much displeased at the manner in which the
head had been loaded with hair, which the sculptor
insisted upon, as it made him look more like an
ancient poet. The sittings were not very favour-
able, which rather vexed the artist, who, upon
opening the street-door, a vulgarity he was addicted
to, peevishly whined : ' Now, Doctor, you did say
you would give my busto half an hour before
dinner, and the dinner has been waiting this long
time.' To which the Doctor's reply was : ' Bow-
wow-wow !'

The bust is a wonderfully fine one and very like,
but certainly the sort of hair is objectionable ;
having been modelled from the flowing locks of
a sturdy Irish beggar, originally a street pavior,
who, after he had sat an hour, refused to take a
shilling, stating that he could have made more by
begging !

Dr. Johnson also considered this bust like him,
but, whilst he acknowledged the sculptor's ability
in his art, he could not avoid observing to his

72 NOLLEKENS AND HIS TIMES

friend Bos well, when they were looking at it in
Nollekens' studio : \ It is amazing what ignorance
of certain points one sometimes finds in men of
eminence i' 1 though, from want of knowing the
sculptor, a visitor, when viewing his studio, was
heard to say : ' What a mind the man must have
from whom all these emanated!' Banks, in his tale
of i Every Man in his Way,' commences with :

' One art, philosophers maintain,
Is full sufficient for one brain ;
And He who made us men, design'd
For such a science such a mind.'

Defective as he was in many particulars, Not
lekens' fame for bust - making will never be
diminished ; and I would have this truth ' written
as with a sunbeam.' Possessed of such distin-
guished talent, he now became extremely popular,
though he never sought employment ; and perhaps
no man had less intrigue :

1 As spiders never seek the fly,
But leave him of himself, t' apply.'

Most of his sitters were exceedingly amused with
the oddity of his manner, particularly fine women,
who were often gratified by being considered hand-
some by the sculptor, though his admiration was
expressed in the plainest language.

I remember his once requesting a lady who
squinted dreadfully to ' look a little the other way,
for then,' said he, ' I shall get rid of the shyness
in the cast of your eye ;' and to another lady of

1 Dr. Johnson, upon hearing the name of an eminent sculptor
mentioned, observed, ' Well, sir, I think my friend Joe Nollekens can
chop out a head with any of them.' Smith.

CONVERSATION 73

the highest rank, who had forgotten her position,
and was looking down upon him, he cried : ; Don't
look so scorny ; you'll spoil my busto ; and you're
a very fine woman ; I think it will be one of my
best bnstos.' I heard him ask the daughter of
Lord Yarborough, in the presence of her husband,
to prove to her that he had not forgotten all his
Italian, if she did not recollect his dancing her
upon his knee when she was a bambina. He was
very fond of speaking Italian, though I have been
told it was exceedingly bad ; and he would often
attempt it even in the presence of the Royal Family,
who good-temperedly smiled at his whimsicalities.

Even the gravest of men, the Lord Chancellor
Bathurst, 1 when sitting to him for his bust for the
Chancery Court, in his large wig, condescendingly
endured the following collection of nonsense, in
which at last his lordship was obliged to join.
Nollekens : 4 Ah, there goes the bell tolling ! No,
it's only my clock on the stairs. When I was a
boy, you would have liked to have seen me toll
the bell ; it's no very easy thing, I can tell you
look a little that way ! you must toll, that is to
say, I did, one hour for a man, three times three ;
and three times two for a woman. Now, your
lordship must mind, there's a moving-bell and a
passing-bell ; these the Romans always attended
to.' c You mean the Roman Catholics, Mr. Nolle-
kens,' observed his lordship. ' Yes, my lord, they
call that the moving-bell, which goes when they

1 Henry Bathurst, the second Earl (1714-1794), author of ' The
Theory of Evidence.' Ed.

74 NOLLE KENS AND HLS TIMES

move a body out of one parish to the next, or so
on. The passing-bell is when you are dying, and
going from this world to another place.' ' Ay, Mr.
Nollekens,' observed his lordship, \ there is a
curious little book, published in 1671, I think by
Richard Duckworth, upon the art of ringing,
entitled " Tintannologia."

But simple and half-witted as this artist certainly
was, yet he always knew how to take care of what
is called the main chance, as will be proved by the
following anecdote :

A lady in weeds for her dear husband, drooping
low like the willow, visited the sculptor, and assured
him that she did not care what money was ex-
pended on a monument to the memory of her
beloved : ' Do what you please, but do it directly,'
were her orders. Industry was a principle riveted
in Nollekens' constitution ; he rose with the lark,
and in a short time finished the model, strongly
suspecting she might, like some others he had been
employed by, change her mind.

The lady, in about three months, made her
second appearance, in which more courage is
generally assumed, and was accosted by him, before
she alighted, with ' Poor soul ! I thought you'd
come ;' but her tripping down with a 'light fantastic
toe,' and the snorting of her horses, which had
been hard driven, evinced a total change in her
inclination, and he was now saluted with : ' How
do you do, Nollekens. Well, you have not com-
menced the model ?' ' Yes, but I have, though,'
was the reply. The Lady : c Have you, indeed ?

ECCENTRIC HABITS 75

These, my good friend, I own,' throwing herself
into a chair, ' are early days ; but since I saw you,
an old Roman acquaintance of yours has made me
an offer, and I don't know how he would like to
see in our church a monument of such expense to
my late husband ; indeed, perhaps, after all, upon
second thoughts, it would be considered quite
enough if I got our mason to put up a mural
inscription, and that, you know, he can cut very
neatly.' ' My charge,' interrupted the artist, c for
my model will be one hundred guineas,' which
she declared to be ' enormous.' However, she
would pay it and c have done with him.'

His singular and parsimonious habits were most
observable in his domestic life. Coals were articles
of great consideration with Mr. Nollekens, and
these he so rigidly economized that they were
always sent early, before his men came to work, in
order that he might have leisure time for counting
the sacks, and disposing of the large coals in what
was originally designed by the builder of his house
for a wine-cellar, so that he might lock them up for
parlour use. Candles were never lighted at the
commencement of the evening, and whenever they
heard a knock at the door, they would wait until
they heard a second rap, lest the first should have
been a runaway, and their candle wasted. Mr. and
Mrs. Nollekens used a flat candlestick when there
was anything to be done ; and I have been assured
that a pair of moulds, by being well nursed, and
put out when company went away, once lasted
them a whole year !

76 NOLLEKENS AND HIS TIMES

It happened one morning that poor old Daphne,
the large yard dog, a constant market-companion
of Mrs. Nollekens, barked incessantly, until Mr.
Nollekens, who was then taking in the milk, which
was his constant practice, could go to the gate,
where he was addressed by a raw-boned man full
six feet in height, who said he was a cutter of
funeral inscriptions, come from the city of Norwich,
and would be glad of a job. At this time the
Literary Club, founded by Sir Joshua Reynolds,
which met at the St. Luke's Head, in Gerrard
Street, had signed a round-robin, addressed to
Dr. Johnson, requesting him to alter into English
the inscription for Dr. Goldsmith's monument, at
that time executing by Mr. Nollekens, who promised
the man at the gate the cutting of it as soon as it
was sent back ; and this I saw him execute under a
shed in the yard near the dog, who constantly eyed
his movements. Trifling as the incident may at
first appear, this person became a valuable assistant
to his new master, under whom he made what is
called a very pretty fortune. His name was
William Arminger, and he carved many of Mr.
Nollekens' best busts ; but farther particulars of
him will be given in a future page.

The monument to Dr. Goldsmith was put up
in Poets' Corner, Westminster Abbev, over the
entrance to the Chapel of St. Blaize, which has
long been used as a vestry to the edifice.

[77]

CHAPTER III.

Friends of Mrs. Nollekens G. M. Moser and his daughter Mary
Her letters, and one from Fuseli in reply Angelica Kauffmann and
her marriage Mrs. Carter Old houses on Hampstead Heath
G\ Steevens and his portraits Nollekens' bust of George III.
Parsimonious management of Nollekens when a bachelor Personal
appearance of him and his wife Economy of Mrs. Nollekens The
sculptor's figure and dress White's Coffee-house, and the gamesters'
address to the King.

Mrs. Nollekens was honoured with the friendship
of three highly celebrated ladies Miss Moser, 1
K.A., the famous painter of flowers, afterwards
Mrs. Lloyd ; Mrs. Angelica Kauffmann, R.A.,
whose works are too well known to need any
encomiums from me, both of whom were chosen
members of the Royal Academy upon its' establish-
ment ; and Mrs. Elizabeth Carter, 2 the well-known
translator of Epictetus. Of the two former
characters I shall now give a few anecdotes, which,
from their being uncommon, at this distance of
time may prove rather interesting.

Miss Mary Moser was the daughter of George
Michael Moser, a truly worthy and clever man.

1 Mary Moser lived until 1819. Her friend and rival, Angelica
Kauffmann, died in 1807. Ed.

2 This lady, born in 1717, died in 1806. Her famous translation of
Epictetus was published in 1758. Ed.

78 NOLLEKENS AND HIS TIMES

He was originally a chaser ; but when that mode
of adorning plate, cane-heads, and watch-cases
became unfashionable, he, by the advice of his
friend, Mr. Thomas Grignon, the celebrated watch-
maker, applied himself to enamelling watch-trinkets,
necklaces, bracelets, etc., from which occupation
he became an excellent enameller of larger and
more eminent works. He drew remarkably well,
and was successively at the head of several drawing
schools, until at last he was elected Keeper of the
Royal Academy on its foundation, which situation
he filled some considerable time with honour to
himself and his brother Academicians. Moser died
at his apartments in Somerset House on Friday,
January 24, 1783, aged seventy-eight, and was
buried in the churchyard of St. Paul, Covent
Garden.

Mr. Moser orminallv lived in Craven Buildings.
Drury Lane a street at the south end of the lane,
which was built upon part of the premises of
Craven House in the year 1723, as appears by an
inscribed stone let into the north-west corner house
of the street, at the bottom of which, against the
wall, was a large equestrian portrait of William
Lord Craven, painted by Paul Van Somer the
younger, for there were two painters of that name.
This picture, which is now destroyed, I have en-
graven in my c Antiquities of London.'

Miss Moser, though somewhat of a precise woman,
was at times a most cheerful companion. My father
knew her well, and was often delighted by hearing
her relate the passing events of the day, specimens

MARY NOSER 79

of which I now present to the reader, in two letters
addressed to her friend Mrs. Lloyd, the wife of the
gentleman whom she afterwards married, with the
loan of which entertaining epistles I was favoured
by Mrs. Nichols, who was for many years the
faithful companion of the writer :

' May 8.

' My dear Friend,

* Come to London and admire our plumes. We sweep the sky.
A duchess wears six feathers, a lady four, and every milkmaid one at
each corner of her cap. Your mamma desired me to inquire the name
of something she had seen in the windows in Tavistock Street. It
seems she was afraid to ask ; but / took courage, and they told me
they were rattlesnake tippets. However, notwithstanding their
frightful name, they are not very much unlike a beaufong, only the
quills are made stiff and springy in the starching. Fashion is grown
a monster. Pray tell your operator that your hair must measure
just three-quarters of a yard from the extremity of one wing to the
other. I should not have said so much about fashions, but I suppose
it makes part of the conversation of country ladies. I hope my advice
will not be stale. French trimming is quite the bon-ton.

'N.B. The Queen and her ladies never wear feathers. They say
here that the minority ladies are distinguished from the courtiers by
their plumes. Mrs. Sheriff brought a terrible story of a trance, which
I suppose your mamma has told you already ; but I have since in-
quired into the merits of the case, and have been assured by some of
the lady's relations, who are likewise cousins of mine by marriage, that
the story is fabulous, and they fancy it was fabricated to amuse a
good old aunt who delights in the marvellous. Is there no ghostly
story propagated at Carnarvon that would petrify one's friends ? For
Heaven's sake invent me some ! Let them be very wonderful indeed,
that I may make a figure among the old ladies. I have found very
good effects from telling a terrific story when I have held a doubtful,
low hand ; pray keep this secret. I do not know one gossiping
anecdote, or it should be at your service. My father and mother join
in compliments to you and Captain Lloyd, and
' I remain, to all perpetuity,

i Your sincere friend and humble servant,

'Mary Moser.'

8o NOLLEKENS AND HIS TIMES

1 Somerset House, Jan. 9.
'My dear Friend,

1 Your " Palace of Silence" has engrossed all my thoughts for
these last six weeks ; I dream of it, and cry " Silence !" in my sleep.
If your printer should not have mercy on me, and bring it out shortly,
I shall certainly die with impatience.

4 The renewal of the year gives me an opportunity of wishing you
in words what I always wish you in thought many, many happy
years. " May you live as long as you deserve to live !" says Lord
Chesterfield to his son. Give me leave to conclude my wish in the
same manner ; because, if my wish succeed, you will live for ever.
Pray, if you have read Lord Chesterfield's letters, give me your
opinion of them, and what you think of his lordship. For my part, I
admire wit and adore good manners, but at the same time I should
detest Lord Chesterfield, were he alive, young, and handsome, and my
lover, if I supposed, as I do now, his wit was the result of thought,
and that he had been practising the graces in the looking-glass. I
cannot help smiling at the fine compliments he desires his son to make
to the Duke of Newcastle, and the delicate turn of his epistle to
Voltaire. Witty sayings made yesterday, and compliments manu-
factured at leisure, I hate ; so I will not allow my Lord Chesterfield
to have been a wit, unless you speak in his defence, which I think you
will not do, because he has said the best of us are little better than
things in leading-strings and forehead cloths. However, as I have
heard that it is generous to acknowledge the merit of those we do not
love, I will declare, if all the good things in Lord Chesterfield's work
were compiled in one volume, independent of his adoration of the
Graces, it would be a most excellent little book.

'I shall have the pleasure of seeing your mamma this afternoon at
Mrs. Toussaint's ; so adieu, my dear friend, and believe me,
1 Sincerely, with all love,

' Your humble, humble servant,

'Mary Moser.

' To Mrs. Lloyd. 5

Mrs. Nichols lias also indulged me with the
loan of two other letters, one of which is warmly
addressed by Miss Moser to Fuseli when at Rome ; x

1 Fuseli left England in December, 1769, and arrived at Kome in
January, 1770. In September, 1778, he left Rome for Switzerland,
where he continued till the middle of 1779, when he returned to
England. Smith.

MARY MOSER

the other is Fuseli's answer, and is certainly coldly
written. However, with these epistles the reader
will be highly pleased, as they contain some truly
interesting particulars respecting the arts. I should
have premised that Miss Moser was glancing at
Fuseli, but his heart unfortunately had already been
deeply pierced by Angelica Kauffmann :

'If you have not forgotten at Rome those friends whom yon
remembered at Florence, write to me from that nursery of arts and
raree-show of the world, which nourishes in ruins ; tell me of pictures,
palaces, people, lakes, woods, and rivers ; say if Old Tiber droops with
age, or whether his waters flow as clear, his rushes grow as green, and
his swans look as white as those of Father Thames ; or write me your
own thoughts and reflections, which will be more acceptable than
any description of anything Greece and Eome have done these two
thousand years.

1 1 suppose there has been a million of letters sent to Italy with an
account of our Exhibition, so it will be only telling you what you
know already to say that Reynolds was like himself in pictures which
you have seen ; Gainsborough beyond himself in a portrait of a
gentleman in a Vandyke habit ; and Zoffany superior to everybody in
a portrait of Garrick in the character of Abel Drugger, with two
other figures, Subtle and Face. Sir Joshua agreed to give an hundred
guineas for the picture. Lord Carlisle half an hour after offered
Reynolds twenty to part with it, which the knight generously refused,
resigned his intended purchase to the lord, and the emolument to his
brother artist. (He is a gentleman !) Angelica made a very great
addition to the show, and Mr. Hamilton's picture of Briseis parting
from Achilles was very much admired ; the Briseis in taste, a la
antique, elegant and simple. Coates, Dance, Wilson, etc., as usual.
Mr. West had no large picture finished. You will doubtless imagine
that I derived my epistolary genius from my nurse ; but when you
are tired of my gossiping you may burn the letter, so I shall go on.
Some of the literati of the Royal Academy were very much dis-
appointed, as they could not obtain diplomas ; but the Secretary, who
is above trifles, has since made a very flattering compliment to the
Academy in the preface to the " Travels." The Professor of History
is comforted by the success of his " Deserted Village," which is a very
pretty poem, and has lately put himself under the conduct of Mrs.
Hornick and her fair daughters, and is gone to France ; and Dr.

82 NOLLEKENS AND HIS TIMES

Johnson sips his tea, and cares not for the vanity of the world. Sir
Joshua a few days ago entertained the Council and visitors with
callipash and callipee, except poor Coates, 1 who last week fell a sacrifice
to the corroding power of soap-lees, which he hoped would have cured
him of the stone. Many a tear will drop on his grave, as he is not
more lamented as an artist than a friend to the distressed. {Ma poca
polvere sono che nulla sente /) My mamma declares that you are an
insufferable creature, and that she speaks as good English as your
mother did High German. Mr. Meyer laughed aloud at your letter,
and desired to be remembered. My father and his daughter long to
know the progress you will make, particularly

'Mary Moser,

who remains sincerely your friend, and believes you will exclaim or
mutter to yourself, " Why did she send this d d nonsense to mef"

1 Rome, April 27, 1771.
1 Madam,

'I am inexcusable. I know your letter by heart, and have
never answered it ; but I am often so very unhappy within that I hold
it matter of remorse to distress such a friend as Miss Moser with my
own whimsical miseries. They may be fancied evils, but to him who
has fancy, real evils are unnecessary, though I have them too. All I
can say is that I am approaching the period which commonly decides
a man's life with regard to fame or infamy. If I am distracted by the
thought, those who have passed the Rubicon will excuse me, and you
are amongst the number.

' Mr. Runciman, 2 who does me the favour to carry these lines, my
friend, and in my opinion the best painter of us in Rome, has desired
me to introduce him to your family ; but he wants no other intro-
duction than his merit. I beg my warmest compliments to papa and
mamma, and am unaltered,

* Madam,
' Your most obliged servant and friend,

1 Fuseli.
1 To Miss Moser,
* Craven Buildings, Drury Lane.'

1 Francis Cotes (1726-1770). He was the first member of the
Royal Academy to die. Ed.

2 Alexander Runciman, the Scotch historical painter. He was in
Rome from 1766 to 1771. He died in 1785, in his fiftieth year.
Ed.

ANGELICA KAUFFMANN S3

The late Queen Charlotte, whose real worth as
to private benevolence was not known until after
her death, took particular notice of Miss Moser,
and for a considerable time employed her at Frog-
more for the decoration of one chamber, which her
Majesty commanded to be called Miss Moser' s
Room, and for which the Queen paid upwards of
900.

It having: been asserted that Angelica Kauffmann
studied from an exposed male living model, which
Mr. Nollekens said he believed, I was determined
to gain the best information on the subject by going
to Mr. Charles Cranmer, one of the original models
of the Royal Academy, now living, in his eighty-
second year, at No. 13, in Regent Street, Vauxhall
Bridge, and he assured me that he did frequently
sit before Angelica Kauffmann at her house on the
south side of Golden Square, but that he only
exposed his arms, shoulders, and legs, and that
her father, who was also an artist and likewise
an exhibitor at the Royal Academy, was always
present. I have under my care, as Keeper of the
Prints and Drawings in the British Museum, a most
spirited study of hers, dated 1771, of a male
Academy model, recumbent and half draped ; it is
in black and white chalk, upon brown paper, and is
in the splendid collection left to the Museum by the
late Richard Payne Knight, Esq., a trustee of that
magnificent establishment, which will in a few years
be the admiration of our own country and the envy
of all the world.

84 NOLLEKENS AND HIS TIMES

Angelica, before she married Mr. Zucchi, 1 the
artist, was most artfully deceived by a discarded
servant of Count Horn, who had imposed himself
upon her smiles with the title of his late master ;
and being a very fine, handsome fellow, she was
determined to show her friends, with whom she
had flirted, that she had at last made a good hit,
and therefore, without the least hesitation, imme-
diately gave her hand to the impostor. The next
time Angelica attended at Buckingham House upon
the Queen, who was pleased by seeing her paint,
she communicated her marriage to her Majesty,
upon which she received the most condescending
congratulations, with an invitation to her husband
to come to Court ; who, however, was cunningly
determined to keep himself within the house, from
the sight of everyone, until his baggage had arrived,
which he expected every day. At last Count Horn
himself came to England, and, when at the levee,
was much surprised by being complimented upon
his marriage. Angelica, who soon received the
mortifying information from the Queen, was for a
time inconsolable ; but at last her friends prevailed
upon the fortune-hunter to leave England upon a
pension, and Angelica, who resumed the name of
Kauffmann, which she retained till her death, was
fortunately never troubled with him afterwards.

Mrs. Carter, of whom Mrs. Nollekens was in
possession of a portrait, most exquisitely engraven

1 Antonio Zucchi, the Venetian decorator (1726-1795), came to-
England early in life, was elected an A.R.A. in 1770, and married
Angelica in 1781. Ed.

CHEERES LEADEN FIGURES 85

by Hayward, from a picture by Lawrence, would
often complain of her c indefatigable headache.' 1
She was a truly sincere woman, and will be intro-
duced in a future page.

Mr. and Mrs. Noliekens took me one Sunday
morning with them in a glass coach to pass a day
with their friend Mrs. Haycock, a very aged lady
who resided near Hampstead Heath. She was quite
of the old school in her dress, and so indeed was
everything in and about her house. Her evergreens
were cut into the shapes of various birds ; and
Cheere's 2 leaden painted figures of a shepherd and
shepherdess were objects of as much admiration
with her neighbours as they were with my Lord
Ogleby, who thus accosts his friend in the second
scene of the ' Clandestine Marriage ' :

' Great improvements, indeed, Mr. Stirling ! wonderful improve-
ments ! The four seasons in lead, the flying Mercury, and the basin
with Neptune in the middle are in the very extreme of fine taste.
You have as many rich figures as the man at Hyde Park Corner.'

The line row of elms, which is now open upon
the left hand of the green opposite to a garden
wall, was, at the time we made the visit, within
Mrs. Haycock's grounds, which were surrounded
by a primly-cut holly-edge. After we had dined
with this lady, who had lived several years beyond
eighty, at which period she had received the small -

1 Miss Elizabeth Carters ' indefatigable headache ' was the result of
excessive attention to Greek and Latin studies in her early youth.
She was a very fine linguist. Ed.

2 Sir Henry Cheere, the statuary (? 1700-1781), was celebrated for
his leaden figures for garden decoration. His shop was in Picca-
dilly. Ed.

86 NOLLEKENS AND HIS TIMES

pox, Mrs. Nollekens expressed a wish to view the
grounds of her opposite neighbour, George Steevens, 1
Esq., better known under the appellation of c Shake-
speare Steevens ' ; and she was more particularly
anxious to see this spot, as she had often heard her
father speak of its notoriety. It having been, too,
a fashionable place of resort for the Londoners,
when it was the Upper Flask Tavern, and Richard-
son having noticed it as the place where his Clarissa
had fled to from Lovelace, the public at that time
was generally talking about it.

Mr. Steevens ordered his gardener to show the
grounds, which were beautiful beyond description.

I received no small pleasure last summer, when
Shepherd, Esq., the present possessor, politely gave
me permission to revisit them, to find this highly
enviable spot nearly in the same state in which it
was in my youthful days.

Steevens early in life was rather conceited of his
person, and had a miniature of himself beautifully
painted by the celebrated Meyer, 2 the enameller
and Royal Academician. He also stood, being fond
of private theatricals, in which he often took a
part, for a whole-length portrait in oil in the
character of Barbarossa. Zoffany likewise painted
a picture of him in oil, with a favourite little dog,
which has been engraven for Boydell for his edition
of Shakespeare. Fond as he was of having his

1 The Shakespearian annotator (1736-1800). Ed.

2 Jeremiah Meyer, a native of Wirtemberg, came to England in
1749, and was a foundation member of the Royal Academy. He died
in 1789. Ed.

GEORGE STE EVENS 87

portrait taken in early life, in his latter days lie not
only refused to sit, but actually took the greatest
pains to destroy every resemblance of his features,
and never suffered himself to remain in the company
of an artist for any length of time, lest he should
steal his likeness. Notwithstanding these precau-
tions, however, he was seriously annoyed by re-
ceiving an impression of an etching of his face,
though not a very good likeness, taken by stealth
by Sayer, 1 the caricaturist, at which liberty Steevens
was so highly exasperated that he threatened ' to
cane the fellow ' a mode of chastisement which,
with a raised arm and a clenched fist, he often de-
clared he would inflict upon most of those persons
who offended him. Steevens, who certainly had
remarkably handsome legs, which he generally
covered with white cotton stockings, would fre-
quently pique himself upon having walked from
his house at Hampstead, half over London and
back, without receiving a speck of dirt upon
them.

Mrs. Swan, an aged woman, who lets ready-
furnished lodgings in Hampstead, and who married
Steevens' gardener, assured me that no creature on
earth could be more afraid of death than Steevens ;
that on the day of his decease he came into the
kitchen, where she and her husband were sitting at
dinner, snatched at their pudding, which he ate
most voraciously, at the same time defying the

1 James Sayer, a Yarmouth man, who produced a long series of
coarse but effective political caricatures. Born in 1748, he died in
1823. Ed.

88 NOLLEKENS AND HIS TIMES

grinning monster in the most terrific language.
However, lie died, and Flaxman lias placed his
effigy on his monument in white marble, placidly
seated contemplating a bust o Shakespeare, which
is erected in the north chancel of the East India
Company's Chapel in Poplar.

I once heard Mr. Nollekens relate an anecdote in
the presence of Mr. Richard Dalton, 1 then librarian
to King George III., which will show how well his
Majesty must have been acquainted with even the
religious persuasions as well as the faces and family
connections of his subjects.

' When I was modelling the King's busto,' ob-
served Mr. Nollekens, ' I was commanded to go to
receive the King at Buckingham House at seven
o'clock in the morning, for that was the time his
Majesty shaved. After he had shaved himself, and
before he had put on his stock, I modelled my
busto. I sot him down, to be even with myself,
and the King seeing me go about him and about
him, said to me, " What do you want ?" I said,
" I want to measure vour nose. The Queen tells
me I have made my nose too broad." " Measure
it, then," said the King." ' c Ay, my good friend,'
observed Dalton, who had been intimate with Nolle-
kens during their stay at Rome, ' I have heard it
often mentioned in the library ; and it has also
been affirmed that you pricked the King's nose with
your said calipers. I will tell you what the King
said of you when you did not attend according to

1 A brother of John Dalton, the poetical divine. He died in
1797.-ED.

RELIGIOUS OPINIONS 89

command one morning : " Noilekens is not come ; I
forgot, it is a saint's clay, and he is a Catholic."

Although it is true tiiat Noilekens followed the
old family persuasion of his father, and possibly
he might at that time, as it was just after his arrival
from Rome, have paid more attention to saints'
days, yet I am quite certain that during his latter
years he cared very little for the Catholic religion,
nor, indeed, for any other. As for Mrs. Noilekens,
though she pretended to be a stanch friend to the
National Protestant Church, yet she never con-
tributed much to its ^support ; for she certainly
never was known to indulge in the expense of a
pew, or even in a single seat. She generally con-
trived, by standing near the pew of some one of
her tenants, to catch an eye of observation, when
she was sure of being accommodated with a seat,
not only in the church, but very often in a carriage
home ; and this latter attention often afforded her
an opportunity of accepting an invitation to a card-
party, or a seat in a box at the opera, of which
entertainment she always declared herself to be
excessively fond.

The following anecdote is current, but on what
authority it rests I know not ; alloAving the story
to be true, it could come only from an attendant on
the King certainly not from his Majesty, nor from
Noilekens ; however, I could name half a dozen
persons who continue to relate it.

The story runs thus : When Mr. Noilekens
attended the King the following day to receive his
Majesty's commands as to the time for the next

9 o NOLLEKENS AND HIS TIMES

sitting, as he approached the royal presence, instead
of making an apology on the saint's account, he
merelv wished to know when he mi^ht be allowed
to go on with his busto. The King, however,
with his usual indulgence to persons as ignorant
as Nollekens was of the common marks of respect,
observed, ' So, Nollekens, where were you vester-
day ?'

Nollekens: 'Why, as it was a saint's day, I
thought you would not have me ; so I went to see
the beasts fed in the Tower.'

The King : ' Why did you not go to Duke
Street ?'

Nollekens ; ' Well, I went to the Tower ; and do
you know, they have got two such lions there !
and the biggest did roar so ; my heart ! how he did
roar !' And then he mimicked the roaring of the
lion, so loud and so close to the King's ear that his
Majesty moved to a considerable distance to escape
the imitation, without saying, like Bottom in the
comedy :

Let him roar again, let him roar again.'

A modeller keeps his clay moist by spirting water
over it ; and this he does by standing at a little
distance with his mouth filled with water, which he
spirts upon it, so that the water is sent into all the
recesses of his model before he covers it up ; this,
it is said, Nollekens did in the King's presence,
without declaring what he was about to do. How-
ever, it was not the case with Mr. Bacon, 1 the

1 John Bacon, R.A. (1740-1790). See prefatory essay. En.

MODE OF LIFE

sculptor, who had provided a long silver syringe
for that purpose before he attended the King, with
which he could easily throw the water into the
recesses of the model, without making so disagree-
able a noise in his Majesty's presence. With the
drapery of this bust of the King Nollekens had
more anxiety and trouble than with any of his
other productions ; he assured Mr. Joseph, 1 the
Associate of the Royal Academy, that after throw-
ing the cloth once or twice every day for nearly a
fortnight, it came excellently well, by mere chance,
from the following circumstance. Just as he was
about to make another trial with his drapery, his
servant came to him for money for butter ; he
threw the cloth carelessly over the shoulders of his
lay-man in order to give her the money, when he
was forciblv struck with the beautiful manner in
which the folds had fallen ; and he hastily ex-
claimed, pushing her away, ' Go, go, get the
butter.' And he has frequently been heard to say
that that drapery was by far the best he ever cast
for a bust.

The reader is to be informed that w T hen Mr.
Nollekens was engaged upon this bust of our late
gracious King, Miss Mary Welch was not in posses-
sion of the power of managing his domestic con-
cerns. He was then a single man, and his servant,
for at that time he kept but one, always applied to
him for money to purchase every description of

1 George Francis Joseph, the painter, born in 1764. In 1813 he
was elected A.R.A., but was never promoted. He died in 1846. The
sculptor Samuel Joseph was his cousin. Ed.

92 NOLLEKENS AND HIS TIMES

article fresJi, as it was wanted for the approaching
meal ; and by that mode of living, he concluded, as
he kept his servant upon board-wages, he was not
so much exposed to her pilfering inclinations, par-
ticularly as she was entrusted with no more money
than would enable her to purchase just enough for
his own eating. He generally contrived to get
through the small quantity he allowed himself,
never thinking of keeping any portion of a roll or
a pat of butter for anyone who might pop in at his
breakfasting-hour, or as a reserve for a friend as a
bever before dinner.

I have frequently heard Miss Moser assure my
father that, whenever she carried him a pot of jelly
or a quince marmalade, she always, upon opening
his closet, found the last presented pot entirely
emptied, so fond was he of anything given to him,
particularly when he had a sore throat, of which he
frequently complained to those who made black-
currant jelly.

Before the commencement of some other anec-
dotes, which may amuse the reader, I must indulge
in a comparison betwixt the general appearance of
Mr. and Mrs. Nollekens, certainly not cheek-by-
jowl, but by the simile of placing a pair of com-
passes and a short pair of calipers side by side ;
the first opened at ten degrees, or perhaps not quite
so much, the latter at full fifteen ; and then, I
think, Mrs. Nollekens will stand pardoned for con-
tinuing to call her husband ; Little Nolly,' which
name, by-the-by, he originally received from her
early admirer and sincere friend, Dr. Johnson, who

ECCENTRICITIES 93

never failed to visit her, for the last three years of
his life, at least three times a month, so that I had
frequent opportunities of peeping at him. In the
way in which the compasses and calipers will
appear, when opened at the above degrees, so Mr.
and Mrs. Nollekens' figures may be conceived
the lady with legs tall, thin, and straight, the
gentleman with limbs short and bowed; thus pro-
portioned, they would slowly move, on a Sunday
morning, till they arrived at a certain corner in
Mortimer Street, where they then parted, the one
turning to the right, the other to the left ; he to the
Roman Catholic Chapel, and she to the Protestant
Church.

Sometimes in the evening, when they had no
engagements, to take a little fresh air, and to avoid
interlopers, they would, after putting a little tea and
sugar, a French roll, or a couple of rusks into their
pockets, stray to Madam Caria's, a Frenchwoman
who lived near the end of Marylebone Lane, in
what were at that time called the French Gardens,
principally tenanted by the citizens, where persons
were accommodated with tea equipage and hot
water at a penny a head. Mrs. Nollekens made
it a rule to allow one servant as they kept two
to go out on the alternate Sunday ; for it was Mr.
Nollekens' opinion that if they were never per-
mitted to visit the Jew's Harp, Queen's Head and
Artichoke, or Chalk Farm, they never would wash
their selves.

Had the facetious Samuel Foote witnessed the
following scene, it is probable he would have given

94 NOLLEKENS AND HIS TIMES

it a more humorous commemoration ; but I shall
endeavour to narrate it in the manner Mrs. Bland,
who kept a turner's shop, used to tell it to her
customers. Mrs. Nollekens, upon opening Mrs.
Bland's door, declared she had not seen her for
some time, though they lived in the same street,
and were close neighbours, only seven doors apart.
Mrs. Bland: 'No, madam, I have not sold you a
broom for these five years !' Mrs. Nollekens :
4 Five years ! my dear Mrs. Bland, how time passes !
though you don't look the worse for wear, my good
friend.' Mrs. Bland : c I thank you, ma'am, I
have had my share of troubles, with my poor dear
husband and my two boys.' Mrs. Nollekens : ' Ah !
so we all have. My house opposite has been to let
a good while now, ever since the General left it ;
is it not a pity so good a house should remain
empty ? Indeed it must be a great loss to you,
Mrs. Bland, for I understand they had all their
turnery of you.' Mrs. Bland : c Yes ; and what is
more, they always gave me my price, and paid
punctually !' Mrs. Nollekens : ' I will now put it
in your power to gain a customer. Here is a bill,
Avhich I got Little Smith ' (myself) ' to write in a
large hand ; allow it to occupy a pane of your shop-
window, and as there is more sun upon this side of
the street, the white paper will sooner catch the
eye.' Mrs. Bland : ' I have no objection.' ; Well,
then,' rejoined the lady, ' do desire your girl to
clean the glass, and then put it up while I stay.
Bless me ! I totally forgot to bring wafers ; can
you oblige me with one ?' Mrs. Bland : ' I will

PERSONAL APPEARANCE 95

see ; we have used them so little here since my
poor dear husband died.' Mrs. Nollekens ; ' Pray
don't mention the loss of him now ; we should
never repine. Bless me ! what a miserable stock !
Stay, we will not mind the colours, we shall manage
it.' The bill being stuck up, Mrs. Nollekens asked
her neighbour what was the price of a good mop.
Mrs. Bland, after taking one down, and striking it
on the floor to make it appear bushy, and holding it
as a buffetier would his halbert, replied, ' There,
ma'am, there's a mop half a crown.' Mrs. Nolle-
kens : ' What ! half a crown ? My good woman,
why, I only gave two shillings and threepence for
the last.' ' Yes, ma'am,' observed the shopkeeper,
' but that was ten years ago.' Mrs. Nollekens f
4 Come, come, Mrs. Bland, don't be rude ; / know
pretty well when it was. But what will you allow
me, now, for an old stick ?' ' Three halfpence,
ma'am.' c No, Mrs. What's - your - name ; allow
me threepence, and I will give you two shillings,
and you may send in your mop.' As Mrs. Bland
would not agree to this, Mrs. Nollekens shut the
door without wishing her a good morning ; at the
same time muttering, loud enough to be heard, that
she would go to a man round the corner who had
just opened a turner's shop.

Perhaps it now may be better, by way of variety,
to give a few of Mr. Nollekens' recollections ; but
before they are related a description of his person
may not be considered as out of place.

His figure was short, his head big, and it ap-
peared much increased by a large-crowned hat, of

96 NOLLE KENS AND HIS TIMES

which kind he was very fond ; bnt his dress- hat,
which he always sported when he went to Court or
to the Academy dinners, was nearly flat, and he
brought it from Rome. His neck was short, his
shoulders narrow, his body too large, particularly
in the front lower part, which resembled that of
Tenducci, and many other falsetto singers ; he was
bow-legged and hook-nosed indeed, his leg was
somewhat like his nose, which resembled the rudder
of an Antwerp packet-boat his hips were rather
thin, but between his brows there was great evi-
dence of study. He was very fond of his ruffles,
and continued to wear them long after they had
become unfashionable indeed, until they were
worn out. A drab was his favourite colour, and
his suit was generally made from the same piece,
though now and then he would treat himself with
a striped Manchester waistcoat, of one of which he
was so fond that he sat to Abbott 1 for his portrait in
it, an engraving from which may be seen in Messrs.
Cadell's collection of interesting contemporary por-
traits, where he is represented leaning on his bust
of Fox, which brought him into more notice than
any other of his productions. His dress-stockings
were also rather remarkable, being ornamented with
blue and white stripes, similar to those constantly
and so lately worn by Sir Thomas Stepney, an
old member of White's, in St. James's Street, of
which house of notorietv the annexed anecdote,

\J 7

extracted from the Rev. W. Cole's MSS. in the

1 Francis Samuel Abbott, the portrait-painter (1760-1803). He was
a pupil of Hayman. He painted several portraits of Nelson. Ed.

HUMOROUS ADDRESS 97

British Museum, shall conclude this chapter, and
may probably be found entertaining to the reader :

' The following humorous address was supposed to have been written
by Colonel Lyttelton, brother to Sir George Lyttelton, in 1752, on his
Majesty's return from Hanover, when numberless addresses were
presented. White's Chocolate House, near St. James's Palace, was the
famous gaming-house, where most of the nobility had meetings and a
society. It was given to me December 8, 1752.

1 The Gamesters' Address to the King.

'"Most Righteous Sovereign,

'"May it please your Majesty, we, the lords, knights, etc., of
the Society of White's, beg leave to throw ourselves at your Majesty's
feet ;(our honours and consciences lying under the table, and our
fortunes being ever at stake), and congratulate your Majesty's happy
return to these kingdoms, which assembles us together, to the great
advantage of some, the ruin of others, and the unspeakable satisfaction
of all, both us, our wives, and children. We beg leave to acknowledge
your Majesty's great goodness and lenity in allowing us to break those
laws which we ourselves have made, and you have sanctified and con-
firmed, while your Majesty alone religiously observes and regards
them. And we beg leave to assure your Majesty of our most un-
feigned loyalty and attachment to your sacred person, and that next
to the kings of diamonds, clubs, spades, and hearts, we love, honour,
and adore you."

1 To which his Majesty was pleased to return this most gracious
answer :

1 " My Lords and Gentlemen,

' " I return you my thanks for your loyal address ; but whilst I
have such rivals in your affection as you tell me of, lean neither think
it worth preserving or regarding. I look upon you yourselves as a
pack of cards, and shall deal with you accordingly." ' *

1 See Cole's MSS., vol. xxxi., p. 171, in the British Museum.

[98]

CHAPTER IV.

Nollekens' dinner-parties and visitors Mr. Taylor Economical
eccentricities of Mrs. Nollekens Dr. Johnson The sculptor and
the snow model in Oxford Market Mr. White of Fleet Street
Mrs. Nollekens and the modeller in butter Salubrious air of
Hampstead, and artists residing there Manoeuvres of Mrs. Nol-
lekens in dress, etc.

One day, when some friends were expected to
dine with Mrs. Nollekens, poor Bronze, labouring
under a severe sore throat, stretching her flannelled
neck up to her mistress, hoarsely announced c all
the Hawkinses ' to be in the dining-parlour ! Mrs.
Nollekens, in a half-stifled whisper, cried : ' Nolly,
it is truly vexatious that we are always served so
when we dress a joint ; you won't be so silly as to
ask them to dinner ?' Nollekens : c I ask them !
let 'em get their meals at home ; I'll not encourage
the sort of thing ; or, if they please, they can go to
Mathias's ; they'll find the cold leg of lamb we left
yesterday.' Mrs. Nollekens : 'No wonder, I am sure,
they are considered so disagreeable by Captain Grose,
Hampstead Steevens, Murphy, Nichols, andBoswell.'
At this moment who should come in but Mr.
John Taylor 1 (who will be often mentioned in this

1 John Taylor, the portrait-painter (1739-1838). He invested his
earnings in the long annuities, so as to be safe to the age of one

JOHN TAYLOR 99

work) ; he looked around and wondered what all
the fuss could be about. ' Why don't you go to your
dinner, my good friend ?' said he ; ' I am sure it
must be ready, for I smell the gravy.' Nollekens,
to whom he had spoken, desired him to keep his
nonsense to himself. Taylor : c Well, well, well, I
own I ought to have nothing to do with family
affairs. I see your dog Daphne has the mange !
You should put some brimstone in his water ; it is
a very fine purifier of the blood ; indeed, I take it
myself now and then ; and I recollect my old
friend, Jonathan Tyers, never suffered any of his
dogs to be without it. Heighday !' looking behind
the screen, c why, here's a boy naked ! What,
Tom, is it you ?' l Yes, sir,' replied I. Taylor :
4 Why, what are you sitting for now ? You were a
Cupid the other day. Oh, a Mercury, I see a
pretty compliment, faith ! Well, you must mind
what you're about. However, Nollekens has made
a god of you, you'll remember that. I say, who's
coming here to dinner, do you know ? He has
never asked me to dine with him as yet ; I don't
know what he may do ; nor did he ever send me a
slice of the Yarborough venison. Well, perhaps I
am as well without it, though I must own I like
venison : Quin was fond of it, too. He and my
master, Frank Hayman, 1 knew the taste of it full
well ; and I recollect when Lord Sandwich gave a

hundred, and escaped penury only by dying in his ninety-ninth
year. Ed.

1 Francis Hayman (1708-1776) was a foundation member of the
Royal Academy. Ed.

ioo NOLLEKENS AND HIS TIMES

dinner to Lady Vane in Vauxhall Gardens the
haunches were fifty shillings apiece.'

This dispute had lasted so long that perhaps the
1 Hawkinses ' overheard it, for they had silently let
themselves out without even ringing the bell.
Shortly after the invited party arrived, and I, who
had been ' a very good lad,' was allowed to remain
in the studio to finish my drawing for admission
into the Royal Academy. Now, as this room was
next to the dining-parlour, I could not avoid hear-
ing part of the conversation, for, as there was not
much to eat, there were many talkers ; but before
the company sat down they were requested to walk
upstairs for a moment, to see Angelica Kauff-
mann's portrait of Mrs. Nollekens, who was painted
in the character of Innocence, with a dove, of a
three-quarter size, for which she had just received
15 15s. In the meantime Bronze, who had been
assisting the cook to put on the dishes, called to
me through the keyhole : ' Bless you, Master
Smith, come and see our set-out !' And as the
scanty display for so many persons astonished me,
I shall endeavour to describe the c spread,' 1 as it is
called at Cambridge.

Two tables were joined ; but as the legs of one
were considerably shorter than those of the other,
four blocks of wood had been prepared to receive
them. The damask tablecloth was of a coffee-
colour, similar to that formerly preferred by
washers of Court ruffles. I recollect that the

1 In English, 'A few things, sufficient to keep body and soul
together.' Smith.

A DINNER PARTY

knives and forks matched pretty well ; but the
plates of Queen's ware had not only been ill-used
by being put upon the hob, by which they had lost
some of their gadrooned edges, but were of an
unequal size, and the dishes were flat, and therefore
held little gravy. The dinner consisted of a roasted
leg of pork, the joint scented by their friend Taylor ;
a salad, with four heads of celery standing pyra-
midically ; mashed turnips neatly spooned over a
large flat plate to the height of a quarter of an
inch ; and, lastly,

' Lo ! a lobster introduced in state,
Whose ample body stretches o'er the plate. 5

The side-dishes were a chicken and a reindeer's
tongue, with parsley and butter, but the boat was
without a ladle, and the plate hardly large enough
for it to stand in. Close to Mrs. Nollekens' left
elbow stood a dumb waiter with cheese, a slice of
butter, a few watercresses, and a change of plates,
knives, and forks.

The dinner being announced, there was a great
rustling of silks for preference of places, and I
concluded, by the party drawing their chairs close,
they were ready to begin ; but Bronze used to say :
1 No one could eat till he was red in the face at
master's table.' The set at the table consisted of
Nollekens, his wife, and five on a side. No chal-
lenges at dinner that I heard of, nor do I think
wine was even mentioned until the servants were
ordered to ' take off.' Much about this time there
was a great bustle, in which I distinctly heard
Mrs. Nollekens' voice vociferate : ' I will have it

102 NOLLEKENS AND HIS TIMES

found !' At last Bronze entered, to whom she had
given peremptory commands to fetch it. Mr.
Nollekens: 'And, arter all, pray where did you
find it ?' Bronze : l Why, sir, under the pillow of
your bed.' ' There, Mr. N., I knew you had used
it last night.' Nollekens ordered Bronze out of the
room, saying ' he never liked that woman ; her
mouth looked so much like the rump of a chicken.'
This nameless article was then caught first by one
elderly maiden, and then by another ; and as for
Miss Welch, she declared a 'back-scratch' to be
the most agreeable thing imaginable, and she was
glad it was found, as it had been her mother's,
adding that Cowper was perfectly correct in his
assertion upon things mislaid :

1 For 'tis a truth well known to most,
That whatsoever thing is lost,
We seek it, ere it come to light,
In every cranny but the right.'

Mrs. Nollekens : ' My dear Nolly, you had no
occasion to have wasted the writing-paper for the
claret, for, as it is the only bottle with a tall neck,
we should have known it. My dear Mrs. Paradice,
you may safely take a glass of it, for it is the last
of twelve which Mr. Caleb Whitef oord sent us as
a present ; and everybody who talks about wine
should know his house has ever been famous for
claret.' Mr. Nollekens : l Don't crack the nuts with
your teeth, Miss Moser ; you'll spoil them.' ' Ay,
and what would Mr. Fuseli say to that ?' asked
Mr. Saunders Welch, who now spake for the first
time. The ladies at last retired, and Bronze soon

GIFTS FROM ENGRA VERS icr

declared tea to be ready, upon which the gentlemen
went to the drawing-room, though without Mr.
Nollekens, who remained to give orders for the
salad to be put up again for the next day.

On the following morning Mr. Taylor popped in
as usual, and wished to know, ' in the name of
Fortune,' who had dined there yesterday ; and
being told of a few of the persons, one of whom
had just lost his wife, his memory served him
again as to his old master Hayman. l Ay,' said he,
4 my master, Frank Hayman, was a droll dog. I
recollect when he buried his wife a friend asked
him why he expended so much money on her
funeral. " Ah, sir," replied he, " she would have
done as much, or more, for me with pleasure."

Mrs. Nollekens was a collector of prints, by
receiving presents from those engravers who were
candidates for the Associates' chairs in the Royal
Acadenw. She had several en^ravin^s after Claude,
with whom she always expressed herself delighted^
and whenever she had occasion to show them would
invariably make the following observation : 4 It is
very remarkable that Claude, Salvator Rosa, and
Nicholas Poussin lived close beside each other on
the Trinita del Monte.'

Mrs. Nollekens, well knowing her dear father to
be fond of a glass of Yorkshire ale, endeavoured
economically to procure a little, though her attempts
were unsuccessful ; and, indeed, she was frequently
heard to declare herself by no means obliged to her
neighbour, Mr. Sparrow, for so often declining to
allow her something for the odd bottles she had in

104 NOLLEKENS AND HIS TIMES

her cellar. It was true that they were mostly of
different shapes and sizes, but that she could not
help, as they were all presents. ' However,' added
she, c as that is the case, they would better suit all
sorts of purposes; he might have taken them, particu-
larly as I have frequently told him Mr. Nollekens
did not punish him for having his bills stuck
against our yard-gates when he advertised for his
son,' a fine youth, who was afterwards discovered
to have been drowned when bathing in Marylebone
Basin.

Mr. and Mrs. Nollekens, who made a point of
never visiting people at their country lodgings,
where there was often too great a makeshift, had
no objection to obey the truly kind commands of
Sir Joshua Reynolds, Sir William Chambers, or
Mr. Wilton, 1 at their delightful villas, where every-
thing was perfection itself ; but they were more
particularly pleased when Sir Joshua accommo-
dated Dr. Johnson and themselves with seats in his
carriage.

By such an indulgence they not only avoided the
fare to Richmond, but by keeping the carriage
some time at the door, to the great annoyance of
the Doctor, who once roared out, ' Come, Nolly I
Nolly!' proved to the Rev. Mr. Martin, 2 and other

1 Joseph Wilton, R.A., the sculptor. See Prefatory Essay. Ed.

2 Of this most respectable clergyman, who for many years was Mr.
Nollekens' next-door neighbour, there are two most admirable like-
nesses, both painted and engraved by Linnell. Mr. Martin, whose
literary works are well known, for many years had a chapel in Grafton
Street, Soho, from whence he went to an entirely new one in Keppel
Street, Russell Square. Smith.

A SNOW HOUSE 105

neighbours in Mortimer Street, who were sure at
that moment to be applied to for her lost cat, how
much they were respected by the President of the
Eoyal Academy and the renowned Dr. Johnson,
the latter being at that time so popular that gentle-
men continued to pass and repass, purposely to feed
their sight upon so excellent and learned a character.

During: a severe frost, after a heavv fall of snow,
an Oxford Market butcher meeting Nollekens at
the barber's, requested him to visit a snow house,
which he and several other lads of the steel had
erected, in which he said twelve pretty corpulent
people could comfortably dine. Our sculptor, being
always fond of sights, went with him, when a few
greasy brothers of the knife surrounded him within,
and swore they would not let him out unless he
paid his footing. The R.A., however, gave them
only sixpence, insisting that it was quite enough
for a model in snow, which so exasperated the
brutal architects that the wickedest son of Palladio
thawed with a warm, smoky poker the name of
Nollekens upon the outside of the hut, which
induced the observers to believe and report that he
had made it.

This most scandalous insinuation annoyed Mrs.
Nollekens exceedingly, and the butchers insisted
upon her giving them five shillings to take it out,
which demand she paid, and afterwards went by
the appellation of their Frosty Friend. Indeed,
for a long time Nollekens was bantered by Barry,
the painter who, though he could not bear a joke,
knew pretty well where to pass one, and was per-

106 NOLLEKENS AND HIS TIMES

fectly master of wit enough to render it a nuisance
to those at whose door he thought proper to throw
it who gave Nollekens the nickname of a ' Frozen-
hearted Architect,' who could ' so coolly, in such an
inclement season, deliberately erect a mansion with
neither a door, a window, nor a fireplace. And
how, in the name of Fortune, he could think of
gaining a tenant to reimburse himself for two
weeks together, was to his friends quite enig-
matical. However, there was one thing which
even his enemies could not charge him with a
fault too common anions; manv modern builders
he had not laid a rotten foundation.'

No friend could perplex Mrs. Nollekens more
than by presenting her with a turkey, when she
was without a cook to draw the sinews of the legs,
as every poulterer in the neighbourhood had re-
peatedly refused her custom, in consequence of
her tiresome mode of offering them less than the
market price for their chickens, and always leaving
their shops without once making a single purchase,
so that her only means of procuring poultry was
of the higglers : their fowls, she found out, were
either so ill fed, or of such an enormous age, that
there was no gravy to follow the knife, a sure
proof, she observed, that they could neither be the
genuine Dorking nor the true ' barn-door birds.'

There was one man, however, a cheesemonger,
then living at the corner of Wells Street, who
always got the whip-hancl of her in an exchange
for butter whenever she had more game in the
house than would well keep for use ; for as to

EXCHANGE NO ROBBERY 107

giving any away, that was an act she could not
honestly record in her diary whilst she could get
Mr. Mason's butter in return, cheese being never
allowed nor seen in her house, but at set dinners,
when, as there was a partition in the old family
tray, she generally sported samples of two sorts,
taking particular care that they should not be too
heavy for Bronze to put on over the head of her
master.

When straw hats had become unfashionable,
Mrs. Nollekens hinted to old White, the hatter of
Fleet Street, who frequently came to show Nolle -
kens one of his Roman medals or a lamp, that
possibly he could accommodate her with a Leghorn
hat at a moderate rate. White, who was a cunning
old fox, and well knew how to plough with another
man's heifer, seldom visited Mr. Nollekens' studio,
by way of getting the loan of a model, or a squeeze
of something old or singularly curious, without first
looking into the parlour to see how his dear friend
Welch's daughter was, at the same time taking
care to present her with an old-fashioned hat, well
knowing that she cut them into more modern
shapes, and covered them either with velvet from
an old tippet, or a silk hatband. Nollekens, finding
his wife always benefited by these visits, never
refused White a squeeze of a patera, or anything
that would answer his purpose ; and at the same
time, when he was gone, he readily joined in the
laugh against old Gerrard, and the other fools who
had been for years duped by old White, who had
turned his wine-cellars into manufactories for the

108 NOLLE KENS AND HIS TIMES

produce of cast coins, and modern squeezes from
Roman lamps.

These imitations White put into auctions and
venders' shops for sale, and they were actually
bought with avidity by the profound judges and
collectors of such trash, who would, when the
secret was discovered, rather than acknowledge
their own want of judgment in such matters, boldly
insist upon their originality, and call the man who
declared himself as their fabricator ' an impudent
impostor.' White has not been the only one whose
performances have deceived unwary collectors ; and
even the learned have sometimes been pleased to
impose copies upon themselves, to the no little
injury of the man of real taste and talent, who
produced some of their boasted treasures from the
rough material. There can be little doubt as to the
possibility of deceiving collectors in almost every
pursuit ; and I should expect that if the imitations
of Greek and Roman art could declare themselves,
many a curious tale could be told by some of those
now hoarded up in cabinets, for which pretty heavy
sums have been given by their happy possessors.

I must own Mrs. Xollekens had one quality
which dignifies a superior woman she seldom inter-
fered in her husband's profession and concerns
with the world, and during the whole of my
observations upon that lady's deportment I wit-
nessed only two liberties, if, indeed, they may be
called so, that she took with her Nolly's profes-
sional career, and one was when that great article
of consumption, butter, was concerned. One morn-

A HANDSOME MODEL 109

ing a very handsome woman, who lodged in the
first-floor of No. 5, Oxford Market, modestly
rapped at the door. Mr. Nollekens, who was
giving me instructions to knead the clay for a bust
of Mr. Mathias, according to his usual custom,
answered the knock, and when he saw the beautiful
creature, whom I had seen over the window-blinds,
he said : c Come in, my dear ; who sent you to me ?'
c No one, sir ; my friends tell me I have a peculiar
talent for modelling in butter, and I have brought
a few pigs and sheep in this butter-boat to show
you.' ' Walk in, walk in ; this is only my pupil,
and he won't say a word about it.' c I beg your
pardon, sir, for the intrusion ; perhaps I ought to
have informed you that I am a housekeeper in want
of a situation, and finding that the knowledge of
modelling animals in butter would greatly add to
my recommendation, I have taken the liberty of
submitting the little things I have done to vour
inspection.'

At this moment the studio -door was opened,
and Mrs. Nollekens, with her usual precision
of words, stepped up to her husband, and, putting
her finger upon his sleeve, said : ' Surely Mr.
Nollekens will not suffer himself to be looked
upon in the light of a pastrycook ! What have
you, my dear sir, to do with modelling in butter ?
the world will say that you have taught Mrs.
what is your name, my good woman ?' ' Wilmot.'
' Mrs. Wilmot to model in butter ! Pray, are you
married, Mrs. Wilmot ?' ; No, I can't say I am
married, ma'am.' ' Mr. Nollekens, I wish to sjoeak

no NOLLEKENS AND HIS TIMES

with you in the next room.' What was said there
I know not, but Mrs. Wilmot observed to me, ' She
is jealous so far my good looks are against me.'

In what way Mr. Nollekens was prevailed upon
I cannot tell, but true it is he did not return into
the room, though his wife entered, who delivered
the following address to the handsome housekeeper :
1 Mr. Nollekens is extremely sorry to say that his
professional engagements at this season of the year
will not permit him to attend to your wishes, but
that, if you will leave your address with me, he will
consider himself your debtor.' Mrs. Wilmot gave
the address as before mentioned, and then, after
replacing her lambs, sheep, and pigs in the butter-
boat, retired gracefully ; at least, in my opinion,
though at that time, I must own, my ideas of grace
were not very extensive. It was curious to remark
that for some time after the visit from the beautiful
butter-modeller of Oxford Market, Mrs. Nollekens
made her husband pass the lady's door, in order to
discover how far he had an inclination to improve
her acquaintance.

After this rencontre, Mrs. Nollekens ventured
occasionally to give an opinion as to the propriety
of professional applications to Mr. Nollekens ; for
I recollect another intrusion upon him of a similar
kind, by a person who cut out castles, rocks, and
mountains upon the backs of shells, and all with a
common penknife. Here, for the love of the true
character of Nolly's professional life, she again
interfered, observing to him that he ought not to
attend to such visitors. ' You might just as well,'

THE VALE OF HEALTH

continued she, l praise the carvings upon a Wycher-
lev comb, so carefully preserved by the collectors
of old china and such gimcracks. Why, bless my
heart ! soon, sir, you will have the man who
dresses Dr. Lettsom's glass wig, to know how he
ought to replace a deficient curl, or how much of
its possessor's face it should cover, so that his
forehead might be seen to the best advantage.'

Mrs. Nollekens, from her mother's experience,
insisted that it was by far the cheapest and least
troublesome plan for a single person, whose health
required fresh air, and was unattended by a servant,
to lodge at a regular boarding-house, as the lower
class of people, in general, who let lodgings, were
much addicted to pilfer from every article of con-
sumption.

Towards the later part of her life she expressed
a wish to go once more to Hampstead, a spot
considered by most physicians and landscape-
painters as the most salubrious and beautiful of all
the Montpeliers of England ; but she could neither
make up her mind as to the enormous expense
of its accommodations, nor as to the peculiar
fragrance of its seven sorts of air, which of them
she ought then to prefer. The latter perplexity
afforded her at times much conversation ; and when
she was requested to name the seven airs, she,
in an elevated voice, stated them thus : ' My dear
sir, there are the four sides of the hill, each re-
ceiving freely the air from the four quarters.
There is the hill itself, very clear, but certainly
often bleak. Then there is the " Vale of Health,"

ii2 NOLLEKENS AND HIS TIMES

as it is called, in a stagnate bottom ; a pit in the
heath, where, if a bit of paper is whirling in the
air, it can never rise above the high ground about
it. And is there not also the mild air of the centre
of the town, where the situation, though high, is
entirely sheltered by surrounding buildings ?'

Wilson, Gainsborough, Loutherbourg, and Kirk
for several years had lodgings at Hampstead, and
made that spot the seat of their morning and
evening study ; and Collins and Linnell, now
inhabitants, are constantly seen culling its beauties.
It is also occasionally the residence of Beechey,
Phillips and Westall ; and I have seen Callcott,
Arnald, the Reinagles, Burnet, and Martin enjoy-
ing its luxuriant windings. Old Oram, 1 the land-
scape-painter, and member of the Board of Works,
who was a man of some genius, inhabited the house
south of Jack Straw's Castle. And it was to
Hampstead that Hayley's friend, Romney, the
painter, retired in the decline of his life, when he
built a dining-room close to his kitchen, with a
buttery-hatch opening into it, so that he and his
friends might enjoy beef-steaks, hot and hot, upon
the same plan as the members of the Beefsteak
Club are supplied at their room in the Lyceum.

No persons could more cordially hate each other
than Romney and Nollekens ; Mr. Greville,
Hayley, and Flaxman were stanch friends of the
former, who, from some pique, objected to the
latter modelling from any of his portraits. Flax-

1 William Oram, a decorator of country houses, and from 1748
master carpenter of all his Majesty's works. Ed.

GROCERIES 113

man, on the contrary, was so great a favourite with
Romney that, in his letters to Hayley, he abso-
lutely idolizes him ; and in one, written at the time
he was hourly expected in London from Rome, he
exultingly exclaims : ' Huzza ! Flaxman's arrived !'

To return. Hampstead has been for years re-
sorted to by Barret, Fielding, Glover, Hills, Hunt,
Prout, Pyne, Robson, the Varleys, and all the
other celebrated water-colour draughtsmen, whose
productions have so astonishingly surpassed those
of their predecessors, both in this and in every
other country.

My old school-fellow, Smith, the grocer, of
Margaret Street, has been frequently heard to
declare that, whenever Mrs. Nollekens purchased
tea and sugar at his father's shop, she always
requested, just at the moment she was quitting the
counter, to have either a clove or a bit of cinnamon
to take some unpleasant taste out of her mouth ;
but she never was seen to apply it to the part so
affected : so that, with Nollekens' nutmegs, which
he pocketed from the table at the Academy
dinners, they contrived to accumulate a little stock
of spices without any expense whatever.

Mrs. Nollekens' friends, after frequently wonder-
ing to see her in shoes so varied in their
embroidery, and being well aware that she would
never think of indulging in such expensive articles
in a spick-and-span new state, all agreed that she
certainly must have purchased them second-hand ;
and by their maids, who were encouraged to
\ pump' Bronze, were satisfied that it was really

8

114 NOLLEKENS AND HIS TIMES

the fact ; and were also informed that her muffs
and parasols were obtained in the same way. Mrs.
Nollekens would often plume herself with borrowed
feathers ; a shawl or a muff of a friend she never
refused when returning home, observing that she
was quite sure they would keep her warm, never
caring how they suffered from the rain, so that her
neighbours saw her apparelled in what they had
never before seen her wear.

[ '15 ]

CHAPTER V.

Mr. Nollekens' fancies and his wife's jealousy Anecdote of the
sculptor, Dr. Johnson, and Mrs. Thrale Lord Bes[s] borough-
Charles Bannister The sculptor's assistants and pupils Dr. John-
son's encouragement of the author Instances of benevolence and
eccentricity in Mr. Nollekens Notices of his relations Saunders
Welch, his father-in-law Anecdote of Wilkes Henry Fielding and
his character from life Dr. Johnson's intimacy with the Welch
family Death, epitaph, and will of Mr. Welch Recollections of
him by Mrs. Nollekens His prudence and resolution as a magis-
trate Silver teapot and other relics of Dr. Johnson Mr. Welch's
humanity Anecdotes of Wilson.

Of all the varieties of itinerant amusements before
Mr. Punch came into vogue, none seemed to give
Nollekens more pleasure than the milkmaids' dance
on May Day, of which he was so avowed an
admirer that Mrs. Crosdale, my old schoolmistress
and his opposite neighbour, assured me that she one
May Day witnessed no less than five garlands, and
their lasses, who had danced at his parlour window,
to each of whom he had given half a crown.

This indulgence of his was considered by Mrs.
Nollekens as a great piece of extravagance, until
she discovered from Bronze that it was the custom
of most of the abandoned women who sat to him
for his Venuses to hire themselves as dancers upon
those occasions ; and as he constantly promised to

u6 NOLLEKENS AND HIS TIMES

give each of them something when they came, he
always made a point of staying at home to see
them display their agility. Sometimes Mrs. Nolle-
kens, whose exquisite feelings induced her to stand
at a distance to watch their lascivious movements,
would rate him for descending to such low
pleasures. ' A man like you,' she would say, ' who
could obtain orders at any time for the Opera
House, where you could see Vestris, and who is
visited by the Noveres how you can agitate your
feet as you do, at such strumming, is to me per-
fectly astonishing ! See ! look over the way at the
first-floor window of the Sun and Horseshoe ; the
landlord and his wife are laughing at you: and I
declare, there is Finney, your brute of a mason,
yes, and his son Kit, ay, and old John Panzetta,
the polisher, looking over their shoulders. How
can you so expose yourself, Mr. Nollekens ? I
wish from my heart Dr. Burney would come in
just now ! and I am quite sure that Miss Hawkins,
poor as her ear is for music, whose playing, as the
Doctor says, distracts one to hear-^-even she, I say,
could never be pleased with such trash as you are
now listening to.' But lie was deaf to all her
remonstrances, and continued to move his head to
the movement of the feet of the girls, with as much
gratification as the man of real taste and feeling
expresses at this day, when he is riveted to the
magic sweetness of Samuel Wesley's 1 voluntaries.

Bronze, my informant, also stated that, as soon
as Nolly had left the room to get his half-crown,

1 The organist and musical composer (1766-1837). Ed.

CURT A IN LECTURES 1 1 7

Mrs. Nollekens, after slowly and silently creeping
to his abdicated place at the window, made the spot
just in time to catch a hussy's wanton and decoy-
ing leer, intended for her husband, at the very
tantalizing moment that the blind disciple of
G-eminiani was striking up Arnold's rondo of
4 Come, thou rosy dimpled boy !' Upon his re-
entering the room, her face being reddened and her
anger raised, she recommenced her lecture with
redoubled vociferation till the dance was over ;
after which, finding her jobations of no avail, and
having paced the carpet pretty often, and as often
convinced herself that her gloves fitted closely to
her fingers, she, bursting with passion, vowed to
tell her sister. ' So do,' returned Nolly ; ' and
then she'll tell you what a great fool you was for
having me, as she always does.' c You filthy
thing !' rejoined Mrs. Nollekens ; ' your grovelling
birth protects you from my chastisement.' ' Come,
I like that vastly,' rejoined her husband ; ' true it
is, your father possessed a "plum"; 1 but then it
was only a grocer's one. Why, I had five times
the money he died worth when I made you my
wife ; and you know what you whispered to me in
bed about your mother. Come, let us have no
more of your impertinence ; I won't stand it now,
once for all, I tell you that.' Just as Mrs. Nolle-
kens opened the door, she exclaimed : ' What,
you're here, Mr. Eavesdropper ! and pray, Mr.
Christopher, what do you want ?' ' Why, ma'am,

1 A 'plum' in former days was indicative of a definite amount
(10,000), just as 'a pony 'or 'a monkey' is now. But a 'grocer's
plum' must evidently must have been much less. Ed.

n8 NOLLEKENS AND HIS TIMES

there's the woman that Mr. Cos way recommended
at the yard-gate, dancing to " Jack-in-the-Green,"
and wants to see master.' ' Indeed ! There, sir !
there is another of your women ! What ! and you
will go to her, too ! It's very well, sir ! mighty
well, sir ! Oh, fie ! fie ! The first year of our
marriage you told me you should dispense with
such people ; hut you are like all the rest of your
sex, always seeking for new beauties !'

Just as Nollekens had closed his leathern bag,
and was about to leave Jack's lady, a high person-
age, who came to sit for her busto, was announced ;
and then the lecture rested till the nocturnal curtains
were drawn, when Bronze heard the culprit mumble
for some time, as is usual in such cases, before the
curtains of his eyes were suffered to drop for the
enjoyment of balmy and refreshing sleep.

Mrs. Thrale one morning entered NoUekens'
studio, accompanied by Dr. Johnson, to see the bust
of Lord Mansfield, when the sculptor vociferated :
4 1 like your picture by Sir Joshua very much. He
tells me it's for Thrale, a brewer, over the water :
his wife's a sharp woman, one of the blue-stocking
people.' ' Nolly, Nolly,' observed the Doctor, S I
wish your maid would stop your foolish mouth with
a bluebag.' At which Mrs. Thrale smiled, and
whispered to the Doctor : ' My dear sir, you'll get
nothing by blunting your arrows upon a block.'

The late Earl of Bes[s] borough 1 was so well

1 William, second Earl of Bessborough, who died in 1793, in his
ninetieth year. He was a statesman of some temporary eminence.
Ed.

LORD BESSBOROUGH 119

known to Nollekens' dog, that whenever the animal
saw his lordship's leg within the gate he ceased
barking, and immediately welcomed the visitor, who
always brought a French roll in his blue great-coat
pocket for him, with which his lordship took great
pleasure in feeding him. But whenever he had been
thus fed, Nollekens would say, when cutting his
meat, ' There, that's enough for you ; you have had
a roll to-day, the other half will do for to-morrow.'

Whilst I am speaking of this truly benevolent
nobleman, I will take the opportunity of observing
that I have heard my father relate the following
anecdotes of him :

His lordship was once standing to see the work-
men pull down the wooden railing and brickwork
which surrounded the centre of Cavendish Square,
when a sailor walked up to him and asked him for
a quid of tobacco. His lordship answered : ' My
friend, I don't take tobacco.' ' Don't you ?' rejoined
the sailor ; ' I wish you did, master, for I have not
had a bit to-day.' As he was turning away, his
lordship called to him and said, ' Here, my friend,
here is something that will enable you to buy
tobacco,' and gave him half a crown.

At another time, a poor woman with two children,
who appeared much distressed, but was remarkably
clean, curtseyed to his lordship as he was passing ;
he drew out his purse, but in attempting to give
her two shillings they dropped, and rolled into the
kennel, upon which his lordship, after picking them
up, wiped them with his pocket-handkerchief before
he gave them to the distressed widow.

NOLLE KENS AND HIS TIMES

Mr. Nollekens, who was honoured with frequent
visits from his lordship, once asked his assistants
in the studio if they had noticed his diamond
buckles, adding that, as they had belonged to his
wife, he had worn them in common ever since her
ladyship's death.

I was one time assisting Mr. Nollekens in the
parlour, in piling up clay for a bust of General
Paoli, when his attention was called away by Mrs.
Nollekens, who cried out : ' Nolly, Nolly, come
here ! There's old Bannister over the way, who
used to mimic the cats in the gutter at Marylebone
Gardens, when my father's friend, Tommy Lowe,
was manager !' Nollekens : i He's a good-looking
John Bull ; his son was a student in our Royal
Academy, he studied under Loutherbourg (called
Leatherbag in the play). I remember he used to
frighten our old John devilishly with his tragedy
tricks.' Miss Moser and Mrs. Carter being present
at these remarks, ' My father,' observed the former,
4 was glad when he left the Academy, though he
liked him so well that he took a whole box at his
first appearance ; and he was nobly received, I
assure you.' Mrs. Nollekens : ' He is a most
excellent actor.' i Ay,' observed the celebrated
Mrs. Carter, as she was returning to the fireside,
4 and what is still more, he bears the best of
characters off the stage, for he is known under the
friendly appellation of Honest Jack.'

It is related of Charles Bannister that, when re-
turning to town from Epsom in a gig, accompanied by
a friend, they found themselves pennyless when they

BANNISTER

arrived at Kensington Gate, where the man would not
let them pass without paying the toll. Bannister,
however, offered to sing him a song, and immediately
struck np the ' Tempest of War ' ; his voice was
heard afar, and ' Bannister, Bannister!' was the cry.
The gate was soon thronged, and he was loudly
encored by the voters returning from Brentford ;
this he complied with, and the turnpike man de-
clared him to be 4 a noble fellow,' and that he
would pay fifty tolls for him at any gate.

By this time William Arminger, the young man
whom Nollekens had employed in cutting Dr. Gold-
smith's epitaph, had become extremely useful to
him, for he had by slow degrees improved himself
in the art of cutting marble as a sculptor. My
father was then Nollekens' principal assistant ;
and Delvaux, a nephew of the sculptor of that
name, Plara, the elder Gahagan, 1 and Green, 2 were
among his best workmen.

1 Sebastian Gahagan, an Irishman, and the most skilful of a family
of modellers. Ed.

2 The son of the celebrated actress, the daughter of Hippesley, and
pupil of Kitty Clive. At this time Mr. Charles Townley was a
constant visitor to the studio, and I remember him as being the first
patron who ever gave me money as an encouragement to proceed in
my studies ; for upon his noticing a drawing which I was then
making, he took out his purse and presented me with half a guinea to
buy chalks and paper. But what is more singular in my humble
history is that Dr. Samuel Johnson came up to me the same day, and
feeling for my head, put his hand upon it, and said, ' Very well,
Aratus !' that being the bust I was copying. I can perfectly remember
the figure of that awkward and mighty man, whose benevolence,
loyalty, and strict religious principles will ever stand high examples to
mankind, notwithstanding the numerous attacks which have fre-
quently been made upon his reputation. Smith.

NOLLEKENS AND HIS TIMES

It is not because it lias been stated that Mr.
Nollekens was little more than one remove from an
idiot that I should omit mentioning an act of charity
bestowed by him on a fellow-creature.

The first act of Jiis relaxation from meanness
which I witnessed was the following : An artist,
named George Eichardson, who published several
useful works, 1 particularly upon architectural de-
corations, was an old man at the period I speak of,
and lived at No. 105, Titchfield Street, for many
years, during which time he occasionally walked
around the studio. One day he was asked by Mr.
Nollekens what made him look so dull. ' I am
low-spirited,' he replied. ' Then go to the pump
and take a drink of water,' was the advice in return.
The poor old man, after remaining a few minutes
looking vacantly about him, went away in tears. Mr.
Nollekens, who had just before been summoned to
dinner, upon his return observed to my father that
Eichardson ' looked glumpish.' c Ah, sir!' rejoined
my father, ' he is distressed, poor fellow ! and you
have hurt his feelings by desiring him to go to the
pump for relief. He was in tears when he left us.'
c Bless me, I hurt him!' cried Nollekens, and hastily
walked out with his head foremost, putting both
hands into his pockets.

The next morning Mr. Eichardson was waiting
at the studio for my father, to whom he gratefully
expressed himself for what he had said to Mr.
Nollekens, who had been with him the preceding

1 He was the author of ' The New Vitruvius Britannicus,' and of
1 A Complete System of Architecture.' Ed.

GEORGE RICHARDSON 123

evening, and, after asking if lie were offended with
him for recommending the pump, stated that when
he was low-spirited the pump always brought him
to. Mr. Richardson, upon disclosing his circum-
stances, expressed a wish to leave the world in
the same room in which his wife died. ' Well,'
observed Nollekens, ' and why should von not die
there ? it's only a garret. Let the rest of the
house, man ; you'll live rent free. One room will
do for von ; sell vour furniture. Here, I have
brought you twenty guineas ; and I'll allow you
the same sum every year as long as you live.'
Fndeed, my opinion of Mr. Nollekens is that, had
he been led into good actions, he would have per-
formed more ; and it is only to be lamented that
some kind-hearted individual had not endeavoured
to make him understand in the latter part of his
long life, when he had heaped up such immense
sums, that he should have recollected his poor
cousins at Antwerp if they were his cousins. At
all events, he should not have forgotten the near
relations of his wife at Aylesbury, then and now
declining in the deepest sorrow and aged infirmity,
either within the walls or the precincts of the
workhouse.

It is, however, unaccountable that, at the very
time when he was so very humane to poor Richard-
son, he absolutely suffered his own uncle and aunt
to sell their beds to support them in water-gruel ;
and it was not until the kind interference of Mr.
Saunders Welch, who had, with his daughter
Anne, seen them in Paris, that he allowed them

124 NOLLEKENS AND HIS TIMES

30 a year. Their melancholy situation has
been proved by several letters addressed to Mr.
Nollekens, and lately produced before the Master
in Chancery by Mr. Nelson Beechey, with a sight
of which I have been favoured by John Stone,
Esq., of Southampton Street, Bloomsbury, solicitor
to Mr. Jasper Peck, one of Nollekens' first cousins,
to whom he had left some very trifling remem-
brances, considering his near relationship to his
own mother. To the Rev. Mr. Kenrick Peck,
another of his first cousins, nothing was left, and
that gentleman has several children dependent on
him for support.

In speaking of these relations, it seems proper
that I should now lay before my readers some little
account of Saunders Welch, Esq., the father of
Mrs. Nollekens. He was born at Aylesbury, was
educated in the workhouse of that town, and was
apprenticed to one of the most popular men of his
day, Mr. Clements, the celebrated trunk-maker, at
the corner of St. Paul's Churchyard, in London.
But I must pass him on to manhood, for the
want of intermediate information, with which his
relative, Mr. Woodcock, is not able to furnish
me, and fix him in trade, for he was manv years
a grocer, occupying the shop, No. 1, at the
south-west corner of Museum Street, late Queen
Street.

My worthy friend, William Packer, Esq., of Great
Baddow, in Essex, and many other venerable persons,
recollect seeing him as High Constable of West-
minster, dressed in black, with a large, nine-story

WILKES

125

George II. 's wig, highly powdered, with long flow-
ing curls over his shoulders, a high three-cornered
hat, and his black baton tipped with silver at either
end, riding on a white horse to Tyburn with the
malefactors. Mr. Welch was a member of the
Beefsteak Club, when founded by Mr. Rich and
George Lambert, the scene-painter, with whom he
was intimate ; and I have often heard Mrs. Nolle-
kens say it was her business to dress up for him a
round hat with ribbons, similar to those worn by
the Yeomen of his Majesty's Guard, which the
gentlemen of that club then wore ; she added, too,
that her father was so loyal a man that, when
Wilkes was admitted a member, he withdrew him-
self.

My friend, the late Mr. Thomas Grignon, of
Russell Street, Co vent Garden, informed me that as
Mr. Wilkes was passing the house in which he then
lived, in a hackney-chair, his father tapped at the
window to him, which notice Mr. Wilkes returned
by kissing his hand ; but he had not gone three yards
before he ordered one of the chairmen to go to the
gentleman who had tapped at the window, and inform
him that he wished to speak with him. Mr. Grignon
immediately went to him, and was addressed in
nearly the following manner : 4 Grignon, you are
intimate with Sir John Fielding. I am going to
him upon a very singular business ; will you
accompany me ?' ' Certainly,' he replied ; ' let me
fetch my hat.' They went, and Mr. Wilkes, to the
great astonishment of his friend, addressed the
sitting magistrate, Mr. Spinnage, Sir John Fielding

126 NOLLE KENS AND HLS TIMES

being absent, to this effect : l Sir, I demand a
warrant to arrest the persons of the Secretaries
of State, by whose order my bureau, desk, and
escritoire have been broken open, and all my
papers seized !' { God bless me !' said Mr. Grignon ;
' Friend Wilkes, you are another John.' 4 Whom
do you mean ? John Hampden ?' ' No ; John
Lilburn,' he rejoined. \ Well, it's all one,'' observed
Wilkes.

Mr. Spinnage, however, refused to grant the
warrant ; and Mr. Wilkes, after persisting in his
right, and threatening the magistrate, went to
Justice Welch, who smiled at his threats and re-
fused his request. It must here be observed that
Mr. Grignon was not aware of Mr. Wilkes's busi-
ness or intention when he first accompanied him ;
but, as he was a most liberal man, he would not
desert him in a moment of difficulty. My friend
Grignon assured me that his father's inadvertence
deprived him of many of his best customers ; though
he added that his father had no other acquaintance
with Mr. Wilkes than that of frequently meeting
him at the Beefsteak Club.

Mr. Henry Fielding, in his ' Journal of a Voyage
to Lisbon,' in 1754, published in 1755, when stating
his great difficulty of moving himself, being dread-
fully afflicted with the dropsy, says : ' By the
assistance of my friend Mr. Welch, whom I never
think or speak of but with love and esteem, I
conquered this difficulty.' This was when he was
getting into the vessel at Rotherhithe. When thev
were at Gravesend, Monday, July 1, he says : ' This

MRS. HUSSEY 127

day Mr. Welch took his leave of me, after dinner.'
Henry Fielding was fond of colouring his pictures
of life with the glowing and variegated tints of
Nature, by conversing with persons of every situa-
tion and calling, as I have frequently been informed
by one of my great-aunts, the late Mrs. Hussey,
who knew him intimately. I have heard her say
that Mr. Fielding never suffered his talent for
sprightly conversation to mildew for a moment,
and that his manners were so gentlemanly that, even
with the lower classes, with which he frequently
condescended particularly to chat, such as Sir
Ros;er De Coverlev's old friends, the Vauxhall
watermen, they seldom outstepped the limits of
propriety. My aunt, who lived to the age of one
hundred and five, had been blessed with four
husbands, and her name had twice been changed
to that of Hussey : she was of a most delightful
disposition, of a retentive memory, highly enter-
taining, and liberally communicative ; and to her
I have frequently been obliged for an interesting
anecdote.

She was, after the death of her second husband,
Mr. Hussey, a fashionable sacque and mantua
maker, and lived in the Strand, a few doors west
of the residence of the celebrated Le Beck, a famous
cook, who had a large portrait of himself for the
sign of his house, at the north-west corner of Half-
moon Street, since called Little Bedford Street.
One day Mr. Fielding observed to Mrs. Hussey
that he was then engaged in writing a novel, which
he thought would be his best production, and

128 NOLLE KENS AND HIS TIMES

that he intended to introduce in it the characters
of all his friends. Mrs. Hussey, with a smile,
ventured to remark that he must have many niches,
and that surely they must already be filled. c I
assure you, my dear madam,' replied he, ' there
shall be a bracket for a bust of you.' Some time
after this he informed Mrs. Hussey that the work
was in the press ; but, immediately recollecting
that he had forgotten his promise to her, went to
the printer, and was time enough to insert in
vol. iii., p. 17, where he speaks of the shape of
Sophia Western :

c Such charms are there in affability, and so sure
it is to attract the praises of all kinds of people.
It may, indeed, be compared to the celebrated
Mrs. Hussey.' To which observation he has given
the following note : c A celebrated mantua-maker
in the Strand, famous for setting off the shapes of
women.'

Mr. Boswell states that Dr. Johnson maintained
a long and intimate friendship with Mr. Welch,
who succeeded Fielding as one of his Majesty's
Justices of the Peace for Westminster, and kept
a regular office for the police of that district. The
Doctor begins a letter addressed to Saunders Welch,
Esq., at the English Coffee-house, Rome, dated
February 3, 1778 :

1 Dear Sir,

' To have suffered one of my best and dearest friends to pass
almost two years in foreign countries without a letter has a very
shameful appearance of inattention. But the truth is that there was
no particular time in which I had anything particular to say ; and

THE WELCHES 129

general expressions of goodwill, I hope, our long friendship is grown
too solid to want.'

The Doctor, speaking of Miss Welch in another
part of the same letter, notices that lady thus :
1 Miss Nancy has doubtless kept a constant and
copious journal.' It was not, however, towards
Miss Welch that the Doctor had serious thoughts,
but of her sister Mary; and I have heard Mr.
Nollekens say that the Doctor, when joked about
her, observed : 4 Yes, I think Mary would have
been mine, if little Joe had not stepped in.' I
must now, in order of time, state that Death spread
his mantle over the family, and that everyone
grieved for the loss of Mr. Welch, who died at
Taunton Dean, in the county of Somerset. Upon a
mural monument erected within the porch over the
centre entrance of the Parish Church of St. George,
Bloomsbury, is engraven the following inscription,
written by Sir John Hawkins, Knight, father of
John Sidney Hawkins, Esq., one of the editors of
4 Ignoramus,' Henry Hawkins, Esq., and Matilda
Letitia Hawkins, with whose writings the public is
well acquainted :

1 In the cemetery belonging to this Church lie the remains of
Saunders Welch, Esq., late of this Parish, one of his Majesty's Justices
of the Peace for the Counties of Middlesex, Surrey, and Buckingham,
and for the City and Liberties of Westminster. He was born and
educated at Aylesbury, in the County of Buckingham, and married
Mary, the daughter of Will. Brotherton, Gent., by whom he had issue
two surviving daughters, Maria and Ann. He departed this life
31st day of October, 1784, in the 74th year of his age.

1 As long as Themis with impartial hand
Her blessings shall disperse throughout this land ;

9

i 3 o KOLLEKENS AND HIS TIMES

Or lenient statutes, or vindictive law,
Protect the good, or hold the bad in awe ;
Or Mercy, blending Grace with Justice, shed
Her milder beams on the delinquent head ;
While Probity and Truth shall be rever'd,
And legal power as much belov'd as fear'd,
So long shall fame to each succeeding day
Thy virtues witness and thy worth display.'

Mr. Welch, in his will, dated December 10, 1775,
left his daughters Mary and Anne equal propor-
tions of his leasehold estates ; but nearly all his
movables he bequeathed to Anne, for her tenderness
towards him in his decline of life. Tillotson's
' Sermons,' etc., fell to the lot of Mary. To Sir
John Hawkins he left five guineas ; to his son-in-
law Nollekens he left fifteen guineas, to be laid out
in a set of silver castors ; and to his steadfast friend
Samuel Johnson, LL.D., whose memory must ever
be revered, he left five guineas, which, says the enter-
taining Boswell, the Doctor ' received with tender-
ness as a kind memorial.' Mr. Welch's will has all
the appearance of being genuine, and the greatest
mass of the testator's property very properly de-
volved to his daughters. Indeed, Mr. Welch was of
such sound sense that no one dared to direct his
conduct, or even to delude him by flattery or
presents.

Whenever Mrs. Xollekens related any anecdote
of her father, she always elevated her person by
standing upon her toes at the conclusion of every
extraordinary mark of his benevolence, courage, or
sensible magisterial decision.

Mrs. Nollekens often spake of his going, in 1766,

SAUNDERS WELCH 131

into Cranbourne Alley unattended, to quell the daily
meeting of the journeymen shoemakers, who had
struck for an increase of wages. Immediately her
father made his appearance he was recognised, and
his name shouted up and down the alley, not with
fear, but with a degree of exultation. ' Well,' said
the ringleader, ' let us get him a beer-barrel and
mount him ;' and when I13 was up, they one and
all gave him three cheers, and cried : 4 Welch !
Welch for ever V In the mildest manner possible,
Mr. Welch assured them that he was glad to find
they had conducted themselves quietly ; and at the
same time, in the most forcible terms, persuaded
them to disperse, as their meetings were illegal.
He also observed to the master shoemakers, who
were listening to him from the first-floor windows,
that as they had raised the prices of shoes on
account of the increased value of provisions, they
should consider that the families of their work-
men had proportionate wants. The result was
that the spokesmen of their trade were called into
the shops, and an additional allowance was agreed
upon.

The men then alternately carried Mr. Welch on
their shoulders to his office in Litchfield Street, gave
him three cheers more, and set him down. Welch
was a tall man, and when in the prime of life robust
and powerful. But though his benevolence was
unbounded in cases of distress, yet whenever neces-
sity urged him to firmness, he was bold and resolute,
as may be seen by the following anecdote :

When the streets were entirely paved with pebble-

1 32 NOLLEKENS AND HIS TIMES

stones up to the houses, hacknevmen could drive
their coaches close to the very doors. It hap-
pened that Mr. Welch had good information that a
notorious offender, who had for some time annoyed
the Londoners in their walks through the green
lanes to Marylebone, and who had eluded the chase
of several of his men, was in a first-floor of a house
in Eose Street, Long Acre. After hiring the
tallest hackney-coach he could select, he mounted
the box with the coachman, and when he was close
against the house he ascended the roof of the
coach, threw up the sash of a first-floor window,
entered the room, and actually dragged the fellow
from his bed out at the window by his hair, naked
as he was, upon the roof of the coach, and in that
way carried the terror of the green lanes down
New Street and up St. Martin's Lane, amidst the
huzzas of an immense throng, which followed him
to Litchfield Street.

Sir John Fielding took cognizance of those
offenders who were nearest Bow Street, such, for
instance, as the inhabitants of Lewkner's Lane,
Vinegar Yard, and Short's Gardens ; but more
particularly that most popular of all gardens I
mean that which is within and in the middle of
St. Paul's parish, which garden became infamous
when its splendid inhabitants exchanged their resi-
dences for the newly-built mansions in Hanover,
Grosvenor, and Cavendish Squares, and Holies and
the other streets adjacent. It was at that period
that Mother Needham, Mother Douglass (alias,
according to Foote's ' Minor,' Mother Cole), and

SAUNDERS WELCH 133

Moll King, the tavern-keepers, and the gamblers,
took possession of the abdicated premises ; so that
Sir John Fielding was in the hotbed of the three
principal of all the vices.

Saunders Welch's attention was for the most part
confined to the abandoned women and pickpockets
who frequented Hedge Lane, the Haymarket, Cran-
bourne Alley, and Leicester Fields, the last of
which, from the rough and broken state of its
ground, and the shadow of a lofty row of elms
which then stood in the road in front of most of
the houses on the eastern side, was rendered a very
dangerous part to pass, particularly before the
streets were paved and publicly lighted.

In addition to these, Mr. Welch had visitors
among the frequenters of Marylebone Gardens, the
highwaymen who committed nightly depredations
in the adjacent lanes, the pickpockets who attended
Whitfield's Meeting House in Long Acre, and the
thousands of his Sunday friends who congregated
in Marylebone Fields before the new road was
made from Paddington to Islington ; when the
public newspapers announced an inhabitant of the
city to have arrived safely at his house in Mary-
lebone ! It was the practice of Mr. Whitfield,
before his chapel in Tottenham Court Road was
finished in 1759, to preach of a Sunday evening in
these fields ; and I have been credibly informed by
William Packer, Esq., a gentleman now living in
his ninetieth year, that he was there when it was
supposed 50,000 persons were present, so much
were the Marylebone fields frequented by the

134 NOLLEKENS AND HIS TIMES

Londoners on a fine summer evening, and so great
was the popularity of the preacher. Mr. Welch
also derived no small share of business from the
depredators who attended the executions at Tyburn.
His office on those mornings, as well as Fielding's,
was thronged by gentlemen who had lost their
watches and pocket-books, or ladies who had been
robbed of their velvet cardinals or purses.

Dr. Johnson soon followed his friend Welch to
the grave, as he died on Monday, December IS,
1784, in the back room of the first-floor of his
house in Bolt Court, Fleet Street, of which room I
made a drawing just before Mr. Bensley, the
printer, pulled that part of the house down to make
wav for a staircase. 1

As few persons are aware of the following anec-
dote, I am sure that the curious reader will pardon
my inserting it : Whilst I was assisting Mrs. Maria
Cosway 2 with my advice as to disposing of the
collection of her late husband, and thus putting
some thousands of pounds in her purse, I was one
morning agreeably surprised by a letter which she
put into my hand, w r ritten by W. Hoper, Esq.,
giving me permission to make a drawing of Dr.
Johnson's silver teapot in his possession, an article
which had been described to me by W. V. Hellyer,

1 There is not a vestige of the original house now remaining.
Smith.

2 Mary Cecilia Louisa Cosway, whose maiden name was Hadfield,
married Richard Cosway, R.A., in 1781. She was herself a painter
and a person of the highest eccentricity. She became the lady superior
of a religious house at Lyons, after running away from her husband.
Ed.

DR. JOHNSON'S TEA-POT 135

Esq., of the Middle Temple, through whose kind-
ness the owner had sent it to his friend, Mrs.
Cos way, first for me to have tea from, and then
to draw it, both of which I did with no little
delight.

Upon the side of this teapot the following in-
scription is engraven :

' We are told by Lucian that the earthern lamp which had adminis-
tered to the lucubrations of Epictetus was, at his death, purchased
for the enormous sum of three thousand drachmas : why, then, may
not imagination equally amplify the value of this unadorned vessel,
long employed for the infusion of that favourite herb whose enliven-
ing virtues are said to have so often protracted the elegant and
edifying lucubrations of Samuel Johnson, the zealous advocate of
that innocent beverage, against its declared enemy, Jonas Hanway.
It was weighed out for sale under the inspection of Sir John Hawkins,
at the very minute when they were in the next room closing the
incision through which Mr. Cruickshank had explored the ruinated
machinery of its dead master's thorax so Bray, the silversmith, con-
veyed there in Sir John's carriage thus hastily to buy the plate,
informed its present possessor, Henry Constantine Nowell, by whom
it was, for its celebrated services, on November 1, 1788, rescued from
the undiscriminating obliterations of the furnace.'

The ensuing is an answer to one of my inter-
rogatory epistles, affording me another opportunity
of recording the fate of two other articles which
had been the property of the late Dr. Johnson, and
as it was received from my friend, the Rev. Hugh
Bailye, Canon of Lichfield, I shall print it with a
double gratification :

* Lichfield, May 1, 1821.
4 Dear Sir,

' I certainly am in possession of the late Dr. Johnson's watch,
which I purchased from his black servant, Francis Barber {vide
Boswell's " Life " for an account of this watch). Dr. Johnson's

136 NOLLEKENS AND HIS TIMES

punch-bowl is likewise in my possession, and was purchased by the
Rev. Thomas Harwood, the historian of Lichfield. It was bought at
Mr. Harwood's sale by John Barker Scott, Esq., banker, who after-
wards presented it to me.

' I am, dear sir,

1 Yours faithfully,

' Hugh Bailye.
' To John Thomas Smith,
Keeper of the Prints in the British Museum.'

In vol. xxiv., p. 72, of Cole's MSS. in the British
Museum, the reader will find a copy of a letter
addressed to Mr. Cole bv George Steevens, dated
May 14, 1782, and as it will afford the collector of
the various portraits of Dr. Johnson a notice of one
little known, I have here inserted it :

' As some return for the portrait of Mr. Gray, and the specimen of
his handwriting, I present you with the original sketch Dr. Johnson
made for his " Life of Pope." Be not angry when you find that the
same parcel includes his " Deformities," a Scottish pamphlet, written
by a club of Caledonian wits. Every bookseller of credit in London
has refused to sell it. The Doctor (who, by-the-by, is very ill, and
I have many fears about him) laughs at such ribaldry, and offered, by
way of frontispiece to it, a very ugly head of himself, which was
meant to have been prefixed to his " Beauties," but was cancelled at
my desire.'

Mr. Welch, who was never happier than when
he was rendering assistance to those among his
numerous friends who stood in need of it, once
kindly blamed Wilson, the landscape-painter, when
he found him in a dejected state. ' You never come
to dine with me now,' said he, c though you used to
partake of my round of beef, and I am sure we
have had many pleasant hours together.' Poor
Wilson, who had existed for some time without
selling a picture, regretted that Mr. Welch was not

RICHARD WILSON 137

a collector of paintings. c I certainly do not under-
stand them, my good fellow,' said he ; ' however,
if you will dine with me next Monday week, I
will then hespeak a fifteen-guinea picture of you.'
Wilson pronounced him to be a noble creature, and,
taking him by the hand, added : * Heaven knows
where I may be by that time.' Mr. Welch then
asked him : ' Are you engaged to-morrow ?' 4 No,'
replied he. ' Well, then,' returned his friend, ' if
you will send a picture to my house, and join me at
dinner, I will pay you the money.'

What person possessing the feelings of an English
artist can hear the name of Wilson mentioned with-
out secretly exulting that he was a native of our
envied island ? And those who have perused the
works of Dr. Wolcot must have been pleased at the
homage which even that sarcastic genius paid to
' Red-nosed Dick.' With my humble share of know-
ledge in painting, I must, without fear of depriving
either Turner, Callcott, or Arnald of one jot of their
high celebrity, affirm that Wilson was a leviathan
in his profession ; and this also was the opinion of
a skilful practitioner and one of the first judges of
art I allude to the ever-to-be-lamented Sir George
Beaumont, Bart., who is deservedly entitled to the
wreath of everlasting honour for presenting so
choice a collection of pictures to our glorious
National Gallery.

Mr. Welch, in the course of a few months, re-
peated to Wilson the proposition of sporting a
round of beef and of making another fifteen-guinea
purchase ; and in this manner he became possessed

138 NOLLE KENS AND HIS TIMES

of the two beautiful pictures which descended to
Mr. Nollekens, of which some further particulars
w^ill be found in another part of this work. As to
the picture of Dover Castle, which Mr. Nollekens
also possessed, Mr. Welch purchased it at a furni-
ture sale, by Wilson's recommendation, assuring
him that it was the best picture he had ever painted.
The town residence of that excellent connoisseur,
Richard Ford, Esq., boasts a most splendid collec-
tion of Wilson's pictures in every variety of his
manner. This incomparable assemblage, which
consists of nearly fifty specimens, had been the
property of Lady Ford, his mother, who, upon his
marriage, most liberally presented them to him ;
her ladyship became possessed of them at the
death of her father. The same gentleman has
also many of Wilson's finest drawings from nature,
which he principally made when studying at Rome,
one of wdiich is particularly interesting, since it
contains Wilson's own figure, seated on the ground
in his bag-wig, making a drawing of Raffaelle's
villa.

The late Paul Sanclby, 1 Esq., once showed me a
fine collection of Wilson's drawings, to which he
attached the following anecdote : Wilson, well
knowing the frequent intercourse Mr. Sandby had
with some of the highest persons in the country,
solicited him to show a portfolio of his drawings to
his pupils. Paul Sandby, with his usual liberality,
did so, and spake highly in their favour ; but found

1 Paul Sandby (1725-1809), the father of English water-colour
painting. Ed.

RICHARD WILSON 139

that the amateurs, or gentlemen draughtsmen, pre-
ferred highly-finished drawings to mere sketches,
and finding his repeated attempts to serve his old
friend Wilson fruitless, was induced to make the
purchase himself, without allowing him to know
that he had been unsuccessful in his applications.

[ HO ]

CHAPTER VI.

Interview between Mr. Nollekens and Nathaniel Hone Hone's
satirical picture on Sir Joshua Reynolds and Angelica Kauffmann
Account of Hone's exhibition of it, with extracts from his state-
ment Other notices of Hone and his pictures Short stature of
Garrick and Nollekens Anecdote by Mrs. Garrick of Dance's
picture of her husband as Richard III. Mrs. Nollekens' dog
Sagacity of that of Mrs. Garrick Norman the dog-doctor Mrs.
Radcliffe's dogs.

One day 1 Daphne, the dog, announced the approach
of a stranger in the yard, and a tall, upright, large
man, with a broad-brimmed hat, and a lapelled coat
buttoned up to his stock, with measured and stately
steps entered the studio, walked up to Mr. Nolle-
kens, who was then modelling a bust of Sir Charles
Eyre Coote, and, full of self-importance, saluted
him with ' Joseph Nollekens, Esquire, K.A., how
do you do ?'

Nollekens, who never liked him, answered, ' Well,
now, I suppose, you're come to get me to join you
in the Academy to-night against Sir Joshua, but
you're very much mistaken ; and I can tell you
more, I never will join you in anything you propose.
You're always running your rigs against Sir Joshua ;
and you may say what you please, but I have never

1 It must have been in 1775. Ed.

NATHANIEL HONE 141

had any opinion of you ever since you painted that
picture of the " Conjurer," as you called it. I don't
wonder they turned it out of the Academy. And
pray, what business had you to bring Angelica into
it ? You know it was your intention to ridicule
her, whatever you or your printed paper and your
affidavits may say ; however, you may depend upon
it, she won't forget it, if Sir Joshua does.'

The visitor, who proved to be no other than
Nathaniel Hone, 1 the enamel-painter, replied, c Why,
now, how can you be so ill-tempered this morning ?
I have brought you two prints which I bought in a
lot at old Gerard's.' Nollekens : 'Well, I don't
care ; you don't bribe me in that way ; I know
what you are going to do to-night, and I'll vote
against you, so you may take your prints back
again.'

Hone : c Why, one of them is by Captain Baillie,
one of the Commissioners of the Stamp Office.'

Nollekens : ' Ay, he's another swaggering fellow,
too ; he was praising the print you have engraved
in mezzotinto, of Grose and Forrest, from another
picture that did you no good. It proves you to be
a man of no religion, or you would not sport with
the Roman Catholics in that way.' Here the dialogue
ended, by Hone wishing Joseph Nollekens, Esquire,
R.A., a good morning.

As few people now living are aware of the par-
ticulars of Hone's attack upon Sir Joshua Reynolds,
I shall here insert some extracts from a paper which

1 He was born in Dublin in 1718, was a foundation member of the
Royal Academy, and died in 1784. Ed.

142 NOLLEKENS AND HIS TIMES

had been industriously distributed by Hone among
those persons who he thought were most likely to
take part with him in the abuse of the honourable
President ; but before I introduce them, the reader
should be apprised of the following particulars :
Mr. Hone, who had been a fashionable miniature-
painter in enamel, commenced oil-painting upon a
large scale ; but in that branch of the art he was
not so successful as in the former. Indeed, he
found Reynolds carry away the principal patronage,
which rendered him so jealous that he took every
opportunity of endeavouring to defame him. And
well knowing that Sir Joshua had borrowed the
attitudes of some of his portraits from those of
Vandyke, etc., he painted a picture of an old man
in a gown, holding a wand in his hand, in the act of
commanding the very engravings which he affirmed
Sir Joshua had used, to rise out of the flames, which
picture Hone called the c Conjurer.' There was at
first some indelicacy which he had introduced in
the centre of the picture, but which he afterwards
painted out, respecting a slanderous report which
had been whispered as to Sir Joshua and Angelica
Kauffmann.

This picture of the ' Conjurer ' being considered
by the members of the Royal Academy as a most
malicious satire upon their President, they very
honourably agreed in Council that it should not
be exhibited by them ; upon which decision Mr.
Hone, as the picture had been the subject of much
conversation, determined upon having an exhibition
of his own works, consisting of sixty-six in number,

NATHANIEL HONE 143

in which the rejected one of the ' Conjurer ' held the
most conspicuous place. The room in which they
were exhibited is now a. workshop behind the house
of Messrs. Mouchett and Wild, No. 70, St. Martin's
Lane, opposite to Old Slaughter's Coffee-house.
Upon my questioning the late Associate, Mr. Horace
Hone, upon this transaction of his father, he favoured
me with a sight of the original catalogue ; and as
it is now considered the Greatest rarity in the
Academic annals, I insert the following extracts
from it :

'Many false reports having been spread relating to a picture called
the "Conjurer," painted by Mr. Hone, and offered to the Royal
Academy Exhibition this season, he is advised by some very respect-
able friends to give a short statement of facts to the public, which he
hopes will clear his character from the malicious aspersions attempted
to be fixed on him, as well as excuse him from the presumption of
making an exhibition singly of his own works.

' After the picture in question had remained several days, and was
actually hung up in the Royal Academy Exhibition, Sir William
Chambers, with another gentleman of the Council of the Academy,
came to Mr. Hone at his house, and informed him that it had been
rumoured that he had made an indecent figure or caricature of an
eminent female artist, and that they should be sorry such an indelicacy
should be offered to the public, or words to this purpose. Mr. Hone
was greatly surprised at the accusation, and assured the gentlemen
that he had always had the highest esteem for the lady alluded to,
both on account of her reputation as an artist, as well as for her other
accomplishments ; and that, to remove the possibility of such a sus-
picion, he would alter any figure she or they chose the very next day,
or before the exhibition ; and that he did not intend to represent any
female figure in that picture, except the child leaning on the conjuror's
knee, and hoped they would do him the justice to remove any pre-
judice the lady might have. The next morning two more gentlemen
of the Council (with that other gentleman who had been the night
before with Sir William) called upon Mr. Hone, who were all of them
so obliging to do him the justice to say they had carefully looked at
the figures, and would clear him of the supposition of there being any

i 4 4 NOLLEKENS AND HIS TIMES

woman figure, that they were well assured they were intended to mean
the contrary sex. Mr. Hone assured them, as before, of his respect
for the lady ; nor did he trust to this alone, but went himself twice
that day to wait on the fair artist to convince her of the error, but
was refused admittance. He thereupon sent a letter by his son, who
delivered it into her own hands, and whereof the following is an
exact copy :

'"Pall Mall, Aprill% 1775.
* " Madam,

' " The evening before last I was not a little surprised at a
deputation (as I take it) from the Council of our Academy, acquaint-
ing me that you was most prodigiously displeased at my making a
naked Academy figure in my picture of the * Conjurer,' now at the
Royal Academy, representing your person. I immediately perceived
that some busy meddler, to say no worse a name, had imposed this
extravagant lie (of whose making God knows) upon your under-
standing. To convince you, madam, that your figure in that composi-
tion was the farthest from my thoughts, I now declare I never at any
time saw your works but with the greatest pleasure, and that respect
due to a lady whom I esteem as the first of her sex in painting, and
amongst the loveliest of women in person. Envy and detraction must
have worked strangely, for yesterday morning some more gentlemen
from the Academy assured me that your uneasiness was very great.
I assured them I would so far alter the figure that it would be
impossible to suppose it to be a woman, though they cleared me of
such a supposition themselves, as they understood it to be but a male
figure, and that I would put a beard to it, or even dress it to satisfy
you and them. I did myself the honour of calling at your house twice
yesterday (when I had the misfortune not to meet you at home)
purposely to convince you how much you have been imposed upon, as
you will perceive when you see the picture yourself, and likewise to
convince you with how much respect,

'"lam, madam,
' " Your most obedient and most humble servant,

' " Nathaniel Hone.
1 " To Mrs. Angelica Kauffmann."

1 To which the day following this answer was returned : #

'"Sir,

' " I should have answered yours immediately, but I was
engaged in business. I cannot conceive why several gentlemen, who

NATHANIEL HONE 145

never before deceived me, should conspire to do it at this time ; and
if they themselves were deceived, you cannot wonder that others
should be deceived also, and take for satire that which you say was
not intended. I was actuated, not only by my particular feelings, but
a respect for the arts and artists, and persuade myself you cannot
think it a great sacrifice to remove a picture that had even raised sus-
picion of disrespect to any person who never wished to offend you.
" I am, sir,

1 " Your humble servant,

' " Angelica Kauffman.
' " To Nathaniel Hone, Esq.,
Pall Mall."

'Mr. Hone was exceedingly hurt to find the lady's prejudices were
so strong that she was averse to being convinced, and would not trust
her own senses to be undeceived. So forcibly had malice and detraction
wrought the mischief that a whole city was to laugh at the imposition,
whilst a party concerned was resolved to remain obstinate in error,
and oppose the most condescending offer that could be thought of to
break the spell that Mr. Hone's enemies ensnared her in. However,
other motives worked the concluding part, though this was to be the
ostensible reason for the extraordinary conduct of rejecting the works
of an Academician honoured by his Majesty's sign-manual, and whose
character had been hitherto unimpeached by the breath of slander
during a residence in this capital of upwards of thirty years.

' He was still in hopes that all ill-grounded prejudices would be
dispersed ; but how was he disappointed in his prospects when, to his
astonishment, he received the following letter from the Secretary of
the Academy !

" Exhibition Room, Pall Mall,
Tuesday evening, 9 o'clock.
'"Sir,

4 " I am directed to acquaint you that a ballot having been
taken by the Council whether your picture called the 'Conjurer'
should be admitted in the Exhibition, it was determined in the
negative.

' " You are therefore desired to send for the picture as soon as it
may be convenient.

' " I am, sir,
' " Your most obedient and most humble servant,

' " F. M. Newton, R.A., Secretary.
1 " Nathaniel Hone, Esq."

10

[46 NOLLEKENS AND HIS TIMES

1 He was now reduced to a dilemma, to acquiesce supinely under the
heavy reproach of having offered a picture unfit for the public eye,
and suffer the affront of his labours being rejected and his character
traduced. What in such a case could he do ? but by appealing to the
public, to whose candour and judgment he submits himself and his
art, being sure that at that tribunal the mist will be dispelled, truth
will be prevalent, and that his labours, which have for many years
given satisfaction and pleasure to his employers, will not now be dis-
approved of on a more general inspection by the indulgent public.

'He trusts that this explanation, with the following affidavit, will
prove, first, that the accusation was frivolous and nugatory, and that
he is not in the least guilty of having given any real cause of offence
to Mrs. Angelica Kauffmann ; and, secondly, that it will excuse the
presumption of offering to the public an exhibition singly of his own
labours :

' "Middlesex to wit. 7, Nathaniel Hone, of the Royal .Academy,
do make oath that in the picture of a ' Conjurer,' offered for exhibition
to the said Academy for the present season, I never introduced, or intended
to introduce, any figure reflecting on Mrs. Angelica Kauffmann, or any
other lady whatever ; and I gave the most explicit declaration of this to
Sir William Chambers and three other gentlemen of the Academy, who
called at my house for the purpose of examining into that circumstance ;
and I at the same time, told them the figure they pitched upon as giving
offence should be taken out.

' "Nath. Hone.
' " Sworn before me this 2d day of May, 1775,

' ' k W. Addington."

1 N.B. The figure said to have been intended for Mrs. A. K. is not
only taken out, but aJl the other naked figures, lest they should be
said to be likenesses of any particular gentlemen or ladies, which Mr.
Hone never meant, as the merit of the picture does not depend upon
a few smoked Academy figures, or even those well-dressed gentlemen
who supply the place of those figures which were said to be so in-
decent, though Mr. Hone had shown the picture to ladies of the most
refined taste and sentiment at his own house.'

The following is a copy of Mr. Hone's advertise-
ment, which appeared in several of the public
papers :

NATHANIEL HONE 147

' EXHIBITION, ST. MARTIN'S LANE.

'Mr. Hone's exhibition of the " Conjurer" and one hundred other
pictures and designs, all by his own hands, may be seen every day
(Sunday excepted) opposite Old Slaughter's Coffee-house, the upper
end of St. Martin's Lane, from ten in the morning till seven in the
evening. Admittance one shilling. Catalogues, with Mr. Hone's
apology to the public, gratis.

' May 9th, 1775.'

Hone's picture of a Brick-dust man, which was
exhibited at Spring Gardens, first raised his name
as a painter. In 1769 l he was elected a Royal
Academician, but in consequence of some pique
against Sir Joshua Reynold he became a turbulent
member. He died at his house, now No. 44 in
Rathbone Place, in his sixty-seventh year, and was
buried August 20, 1784, at Hendon. Mr. Hone
etched a portrait of the Rev. Mr. Greenaway, and
engraved his own likeness in mezzotinto, as well
as a large plate of Two Gentlemen in Masquerade
(Captain Grose and Theos. Forrest), No. 17 in the
catalogue of his works. This picture is now in
the possession of Mrs. Graham, and hangs over
the sideboard of her dining-room at her house on
Clapham Common.

In the sale of his effects in Rathbone Place was
a plaster mask of King Charles II., taken from his
face when dead. When his pictures were offered
for sale at Mr. Hutchins's, in King Street, Co vent
Garden, in March, 1785, 1 saw Sir Joshua Reynolds
most attentively view the picture of the ' Conjurer *
for full ten minutes.

1 This is incorrect. Hone was a foundation member. Ed.

148 NOLLE KENS AND HIS TIMES

Whenever Garrick's name was mentioned, it was
generally accompanied with the appellation of
little ; but I have often heard my father observe
that he never knew anyone who spake of little
Hogarth, though he was half a head shorter. Per-
haps this appellation might have arisen from
Garrick's appearing on the stage with tall men,
such as Quin, Barry, Woodward, Eeddish, John
Palmer, William Smith, Charles Bannister, Brere-
ton, Lewis, etc. Dodd was a little man, and he
was often called ' Little Dodd '; and Quick is now
often noticed, when walking in Islington Fields, as
1 Little Quick.' In like manner, Nollekens was
called l Little Nolly ' by those who spake of him
with freedom, and as ' Little Nollekens ' by
strangers who knew nothing but his person ; and
yet he was the only one of that name in England,
though there are several bearing it in Antwerp to
this day, some of whom have boldly declared their
relationship to him. It has recently been proved
that these pretended relatives are from a different
stock and of another country.

That great and good man, Flaxman, the ' Sculptor
of Eternity,' as Blake styled him, was often called
1 Little Flaxman, the sculptor,' though there was no
other Flaxman a sculptor indeed, I was going to
say, nor ever will be ; and if I had, my opinion
surely could not possibly be called in question in
less than^e hundred years. Hogarth has insisted
upon it that Garrick, if seen alone, would have
appeared as tall as Quin, on account of the former
being a thin and neatly-made man, and the latter,

DIXON'S MEZZOTINTS 149

though tall, an awkwardly large one. This asser-
tion he has exemplified, as may be seen in an etching
by F. Cook, from a sketch by himself, 1 entitled
1 Facsimile of the proportions of Garrick and
Quin.'

Hogarth's assertion as to this point is also most
glaringly visible in J. Dixon's 2 engraving of Garrick
in the character of Abel Drugger, from a picture
by Zoffany, in which there is nothing to enable the
observer to draw a comparison, as Garrick is the
only object in the print. Now, the impression made
upon the spectator is quite the contrary, when he is
viewing him in the company of Subtle and Face,
where a chair is also introduced, which, without
any other auxiliary, acts as a tolerably good scale
for the height of figures.

For a further corroboration of this remark, the
reader has only to look at the large print by J.
Dixon, also after Zoffany's picture from the same
play, in which Barton, Palmer, and Garrick form
the composition, and, in consequence of Palmer's
height, Garrick appears small. Garrick might have
appeared as a large man if he had taken a hint
from Zoffany, who has painted him in the ' Farmer's
Return,' where he is seated in his kitchen, relating
the sights he had witnessed in London, and particu-
larly the story of the Cock Lane ghost, to his little
wife and short children. In this beautiful picture
Garrick is represented as a man of good height, as

1 The original drawing was in the possession of the late J. P.
Kemble, Esq. Smith.

2 John Dixon (1740-1780), the mezzotint engraver. Ed.

ISO NOLLE KENS AND HIS TIMES

may be seen in J. G. Haid's 1 engraving from it,
published by Boy dell, March 1, 1766.

But I must not forget Nollekens in these
ramblings ; he also appeared tall when warming
his hands in the hall of the Royal Academy, sur-
rounded by the young students, who were listening
to his good-natured stories of what happened to him
when at Rome.

As he was once enjoying himself in this manner,
Mrs. Malum, the housekeeper, applied to him for
the poker, adding, c You always hide my poker.
Why, you need not care how many coals we burn ;
you don't buy them here.'

So good-natured, indeed, was Mr. Nollekens
during his conversations with the students, that his
familiarity sometimes exposed him to the ridicule
of those who knew not or forgot the respect which
they ought to have entertained for him as an
Academician. Once an impudent fellow brought
an old brown worsted stocking, similar to one worn
by the R.A. when he had a sore throat, which, to
the great amusement of a few of his fellow-students,
he tied round his neck, and stood by the side of
Mr. Nollekens when he was Visitor in the Life
Academy. However, it should be observed, to the
honour of the well-disposed part of the students,
that the ignorant scoffer was sent to Coventry, and
for a twelvemonth three-fourths of them would not
speak to him.

1 Johann Gottfried Haid, a German engraver, who worked much in
England, but retired to Wirtemberg before his death in 1776. Ed.

GARRICK 151

I must acknowledge that at the time Mr. Carlini 1
was Keeper, the Royal Academy students took
those liberties with their superiors which would not
be noticed now but by expulsion ; and it must give
every well-thinking parent pleasure to know that
their moral conduct was strictly noticed by the late
worthy Keeper, Henry Thomson, Esq., R.A., 2 and
that that gentleman's successor, William Hilton,
Esq., R.A., will most assiduously promote the same
rectitude o conduct.

Mrs. Garrick visited the print -room of the British
Museum on August 21, 1821, for the purpose of
looking over the volume of Mr. Garrick's portraits,
which had been collected by the late Dr. Burney.
When she came to J . Dixon's print from Dance's pic-
ture of her husband in the character of Richard III.,
now in the front drawing-room of Sir Watkin
Williams Wynn's house, she looked at me, and
with a firm emphasis whispered : l Ay, sir, Mr.
Dance used me scurvily as to this picture ; it was to
have been mine at one hundred guineas, and a place
was cleared for it, when to my great astonishment
he informed Mr. Garrick at our dinner-table, where
he had been always welcome, that he could sell it
for fifty or a hundred guineas more to Sir Watkin
Williams Wynn. " Well, sir," observed Mr. Gar-
rick, " and you mean to take it ?" " Yes," replied

1 Agostino Carlini, R.A., the sculptor, succeeded Moser as keeper
in 1783. See Prefatory Essay. Ed.

2 The historical painter (1773 1843). He resigned the keepership
in 1827 in consequence of ill-health. Hilton held the office till his
death in 1839. Ed.

152 NOLLEKENS AND HIS TIMES

Mr. Dance, for he was not then Sir Nathaniel, " I
think I shall."

c " Think no more of the picture," whispered Mr.
Garrick to me ; " in a short time yon shall see a
hetter one there " which was the case, though he
meant the compliment to me, for the first morning
after he had a looking-glass, to the value of one
hundred and twenty-five guineas, put up in the
place which had been allotted for Dance's picture.
He requested me to go in and look at it, when he
with his nsnal playfulness peeped over my shoulder.
Sir Watkin, who never knew a word of Dance's
ingratitude to Mr. Garrick who had introduced
him to all his friends purchased the picture, and
bestowed a most splendid frame upon it at an
enormous expense.'

Mr. Dance, in this picture of Garrick, has been
guilty of an egregious anachronism. He has
actually given Richard III. the star of the Order of
the Garter, when he ought to have known that it
was not introduced before the reign of King
Charles I. 1

1 See Ashmole's 'History of the Order of the Garter' ; Lond.,
1672, folio, chap, vii., pp. 215, 216. The origin of the Star, according
to that authority, was a badge consisting of the cross of the Order,
surrounded by the Garter, to be worn upon the left side of the
ordinary cloaks, etc., of the Sovereign and Knights- Companions. This
was added to the insignia by King Charles I. at a Chapter held
April 27, in the second year of his reign, 1626. ' And,' adds Ashmole,
' it seems it was not long after ere the glory, or star, as it is usually
called, having certain beams of silver that spread in the form of a
cross, was introduced and added thereunto, in imitation, as it is
thought, of the French, who after that manner wore the chief ensign
of the Order of the Holy Ghost, being the resemblance of a dove

MRS. NOLLEKENS' DOG 153

Mrs. Nollekens bad a little dog, which her father
brought as a present to her from France ; it was
considered a great beauty of its kind, being per-
fectly white, having a long curled woolly mane,
and its body half shorn from its hinder parts ; the
extremities of its tail and legs were left tufted, like
an heraldical lion, and the eyelids were rather of a
red colour, as those of the French breed generally
are. With this animal I formed a particular
acquaintance ; and, as she was very good-tempered
towards me, I used to lay out my pocket-money in
buying alternately a pink and a blue ribbon to
make her a collar, with which Mrs. Nollekens was
highly delighted. I recollect Mr. George Keate 1
whose politeness always procured him the good
opinion of the ladies making much of this animal,
and telling it that he had written some lines upon
Mrs. Garrick's little dog, not unlike her in feature,
of which Favorie for she went sometimes by that
name ought to be very proud, since they were
considered extremely beautiful. At this Mrs.
Nollekens caught the bait, and in polite terms
declared she would send for his poems, concluding

irradiated with such-like beams.' The anachronism of introducing
the Star of the Garter before it was invented has, however, been com-
mitted by a much better antiquary than Dance, since it is introduced
in the year 1578, in the romance of ' Kenilworth,' by the author of
1 Waverley ' (edit Edinburgh, 1821, vol. i., chap, vii., p. 149). ' The
embroidered strap, as thou callest it, around my knee,' says the Earl
of Leicester, ' is the English Garter, an ornament which Kings are
proud to wear. See, here is the Star which belongs to it, and here is the
diamond George, the jewel of the Order.' Smith.

1 George Keate (1729-1797), the amateur versifier and antiquary.
Ed.

154 NOLLEKENS AND HIS TIMES

that the lines were to he found there. ' Yes, madam,
said he, c I have introduced them in the hook, and I
will send it, not only for your inspection, but
acceptance.' ' You are extremely polite,' answered
Mrs. Nollekens ; ' I shall be most happy to possess
what you have said of Mrs. Garrick's dog.'

Before I entirely leave this subject, to prove the
wonderfully sagacious and retentive memory of
Mrs. Garrick's little dog Biddy, and how much she
must have noticed her master when rehearsing his
parts at home, I shall give the following most
extraordinary anecdote, as nearly as I can, in the
manner in which Mrs. Garrick related it to me a
short time before her death. ' One evening, after
Mr. Garrick and I were seated in our box at Drury
Lane Theatre, he said, u Surely there is something
wrong on the stage," and added he would go and
see what it was. Shortly after this, when the
curtain was drawn up, I saw a person come forward
to speak a new prologue in the dress of a country
bumpkin, whose features seemed new to me ; and
whilst I was wondering who it could possibly be, I
felt my little dog's tail wag, for he was seated in
my lap, his usual place at the theatre, looking
towards the stage. " Aha !" said I, " what ! do you
know him ? Is it your master ? Then you have
seen him practise his part ?" '

When I last had the gratification of conversing
with the relator of this anecdote, she spake in the
highest terms of his present Majesty, George IV.,
and said that the last time she had the honour of
seeing him, when Prince of Wales, the kind and

THE QUEEN AND MRS. GARRICK 155

condescending: manner in which his Royal Highness
sat by her side at Hampton, and asked after her
health, gave her heartfelt pleasure : 4 And I am not
a little proud,' added she, c of the privilege of being
allowed to drive through St. James's Park.'

Lieutenant-Colonel Phillips, whose venerable age
is not beyond his politeness, has also favoured me
with the following anecdote of the late Queen
Charlotte and Mrs. Garrick. By some mistake the
Queen was announced to Mrs. Garrick at her house
at Hampton, without the usual notice previous to a
royal visit. Mrs. Garrick was much confused at
being caught in the act of peeling onions for
pickling. The Queen, however, would not suffer
her to stir, but commanded a knife to be brought,
observing that she would peel an onion with her,
and actually sat down, in the most condescending
manner, and peeled onions. The Colonel, who
often relates anecdotes of his youth and the dis-
tinguished characters whom he has known, never
forgets to observe, when speaking of Queen
Charlotte : 8 Ay, very few persons knew the good-
ness of her Majesty's heart, and the great good she
had done, until after her death.'

I shall now give a dialogue which was held, as
nearly as I can recollect, between Mrs. Nollekens
and Mrs. Norman, the wife of a celebrated dog-
doctor, who at the time I was with Sherwin lived
in Fox Court, St. James's Street, into one of the
houses of which court Sherwin's premises ex-
tended, and were used by him and his pupils as
engraving-rooms. The name of Norman was so

156 NOLLE KENS AND HIS TIMES

extensively known that I consider it hardly pos-
sible for many of my readers to be ignorant of his
fame ; indeed, so much was he in requisition that
persons residing out of town would frequently
order the carriage for no other purpose than to
consult Dr. Norman as to the state of Biddy's
health, just as people of rank now consult Parting-
ton or Thompson as to the irregularities of their
children's teeth. The room in which Sherwin's
pupils were placed was on the first-floor, looking
immediately into the court, so that it was impos-
sible for them to be unacquainted with the patients'
complaints, which were made known in the court
either to the doctor or his wife, who always
answered from an upper casement. Bijou, Mrs.
Nollekens' favourite lap-dog, was put under the
doctor's regimen by Nollekens, who, it appeared,
had left her early one morning, before we had
taken possession of our room.

One day, about noon, we heard a female, who
had tapped at the doctor's door with the stick of
her parasol, inquire if Mr. Norman was at home.
1 Who calls ?' interrogated Mrs. Norman from
within. ' Mr. Norman, I ask if he lives here ?'
Mrs. Norman, who had then put her head out
at the window, answered : ' Yes, he does, good
woman; what's your pleasure?' ' " Good woman,
what's your pleasure !" is that the way to speak to
a lady ? Know, then, my name is Nollekens.' c Oh
dear, I beg your pardon: you are the person who
sent a little man here with a French dog the other
day : how does she do ?' ' Do ! why don't you

A HOSPITAL FOR DOGS 157

come down, Mrs. Norman ?' ' I come down !
what, and leave all my dogs ! Bless yon, there'd
be the devil to pay when Norman comes home !
Yon don't know the disponsibility I am in : why,
we have got Mrs. Robinson's mother Mrs. Derby's
dog ; and we have got the Dnke of Dorset's French
lady's dog, Fidelle, just come from Duke Street.
Mrs. Musters, of Portland Place, has sent three
dogs, and we have Monsieur Goubert's from South
Molton Street. What ! but is vour bitch ill a^ain?
I am sure we brought it about it was fed upon
nothing but bread and milk.' ' Bread and milk !'
exclaimed Mrs. Nollekens ; J why, we give it some
of the best bits of our yard-dog's paunches.'
c Bless you, good woman ! then it will never be
well : the doctor can do nothing for it, that I can
tell you.' By this time a fellow silenced Mrs.
Nollekens, by inquiring in a rough voice if Dr.
Normandy was at home. c No,' was the reply.
' Well, then, when he comes home, he must come
to Lady Bunbury's ; one of her dogs has had
no rest for these three nights, and her life is
despaired of.'

I do not wish to reflect upon Mrs. Nollekens or
the peculiar attachment of any other lady to the
brute creation, as there are, I am certain, tens of
thousands who, though many of them pet their
dogs, also find delight in walking miles to alleviate
the wants of their fellow-creatures with the balmy
hand of sincere benevolence. Mrs. RadclifFe, 1 the
justly-celebrated authoress of ' The Romance of

1 Anne Radcliffe (1764-1823). Ed.

NOLLEKENS AND HIS TIMES

the Forest,' ' The Mysteries of Udolpho,' etc., was
one of that description, and she had two pets. The
name of one was Fan, that of the other Dash ; both
obtained board and lodging, not as presents from
Lady Sarah Bunbury or Mrs. Garrick, but taken
up by her in the streets, when they were outcasts
and unowned, when, as poor old Bronze would
frequently say of her master's broken antiques, no
one would think of offering a brass farthing for
their services.

Mrs. Radcliffe's attention was one day arrested
by a boy who stood silently weeping under the
gateway of the Little Stable-yard, St. James's ; he
held a cord, to the end of which a most miserable
spectacle of a dog was tied, shivering between him
and the wall. She requested to know the cause of
his grief, and the poor little fellow, after sobbing
for some time, with a modest reluctance stam-
mered, ' My m-m-m-mother insists upon my hang-
ing Fan ; she won't keep her because her skin is
bare. Don't touch her, ma'am ; she has got the
mange.' ' Well, my little fellow, if you will walk
back with me, I will not only give you half a
crown, but will keep your dog, and you shall come
and see it.' When the poor animal was safely
lodged at No. 5, Stafford Row, Pimlico, her new
mistress placed her under proper care ; and when
she was again coated, she became excessively
admired for her great beauty, and, being under the
tuition of so amiable a protectress, she so improved
in manners as to be often noticed by the la^e
Queen and the Princesses, when walking with her

DOGS 159

mistress in Windsor Park, at the time Mrs. Rad-
clifFe had a small cottage in the town. My
informant related the following proof of Fan's good
breeding and respect for a dog under superior
protection.

One of the Princesses' dogs, a spaniel exactly of
Fanny's size, caught one end of a long bone, at the
moment Fan had found it, who, instead of snarl-
ing as a dog generally does when an interloper
attempts to carry off a prize, very good-temperedly
complied with the playfulness of the Princess's dog-
by continuing to walk by her side, just like two
horses in a curricle, each holding the extreme end
of the bone, to the no small amusement of the royal
equestrians, who frequently recognised and noticed
Mrs. RadclifFe as the authoress and Fanny's
mistress.

The other dog was of a large size, and the latter
part of his history is as follows. One day it
happened, as Mr. and Mrs. RadclifFe were walking
along the Strand, to visit the exhibition of the
Roval Academicians at Somerset Place, thev saw
a poor half-starved dog that had just been drawn
upon the pavement, a coach-wheel having broken
one of its legs. When they got up to the crowd,
as there was no master near or willing to own it,
each person was giving his opinion as to the most
expeditious mode of putting the unfortunate animal
out of his misery. Upon this Mrs. RadclifFe, with
her accustomed humanity, requested her husband
to procure a coach ; and instead of proceeding to
the exhibition to feast upon the works of art, they

:6o NOLLE KENS AND HIS TIMES

preferred following the impulse of good-nature, by
ordering the coachman to Stafford Eow, where, by
skilful attention, the once-wretched animal was not
only in a short time restored to perfect health, but
repaid his life-preserver with the most frolicksome
agility, who ever after called him Dash.

[ 161 ]

CHAPTER VII.

Anecdotes of Seward and James Barry Conversations in West-
minster Abbey on waxen figures, fees, alterations, monuments, and
the Gate-house Norfolk House, the birthplace of George III.
Mr. Nollekens' restoration of the Townley Venus Colonel
Hamilton Conversation between Mr. Nollekens and Panton Betew
on artists and the china manufactories at Bow and Chelsea
Characteristic anecdotes of Betew Early engravings by Hogarth.

Mr. Seward, 1 of anecdotic memory, who lodged at
the Golden Ball, No. 5, Little Maddox Street,
where the sign is still pendent, was perpetually
complimenting those persons of eminence who
appeared to him most likely to contribute to his
budget. I recollect, when I was a student in the
Royal Academy, seeing him one night make up
to Barry, who was descending from the rostrum,
and hearing him, after he had expressed his
admiration of his lecture, solicit the pleasure of
walking part of the way home with him. Mr.
Nollekens and I overtook them at a baker's shop in
Catherine Street, when Barry, who detested Seward
for his avowed attachment to Fuseli, requested him
to wait while he purchased a loaf, and when he
came out, had the audacity to ask Seward to assist

1 William Seward was born in 1747. He was the author of 'Bio-
graphiana,' and died in 1799. Ed.

11

1 62 NOLLEKENS AND HIS TIMES

him in stuffing it into a ragged pocket of his long
great-coat. When he had accomplished the task,
Barry exclaimed, ' It's in ! that's the way to be
independent ; I have no fixed baker, so where I
like the appearance of the bread, I buy it.' Nolle-
kens, who had stopped with me to notice them,
observed, ' Ay, Tom, when they get themselves
under the Piazza, Jem will lose him ; I know his
tricks well, when he dislikes a man. Why,
do you know, that fellow Seward sadly wanted
me the other day to give him my Michael
Angelo model of Venus !" This beautiful little
gem now sparkles over the chimney-piece of
Sir Thomas Lawrence's front parlour, a room
enviably rich in inestimable jewels. The cabinets
are filled with the choicest drawings, by Michael
Angelo, Kaffaelle, Rubens, and Rembrandt, many
of which were formerly dispersed through the
portfolios of King Charles I., Rubens, the Earl of
Arundel, Sir Peter Lely, the two Richardsons,
Hudson, Moser, Sir Joshua Reynolds, Barnard,
Ralph AVillett, Udney, Earl Spencer, West, and
several grand collections abroad, from which they
were selected, and brought into this country by Mr.
Ottley and Mr. Samuel Woodburn, two most ex-
cellent judges of art, to whom England is much
indebted for numerous works of the old and great
masters, which might at this moment have been
locked up in foreign cabinets, had it not been for
their zeal and liberality.

Mr. Nollekens having received an order for a
monument, similar in size to one which his employer

WESTMINSTER ABBEY 163

had pointed out, erected in AVestminster Abbey,
asked my father to accompany him thither, and
they took me with them to assist in the measure-
ment. I recollect the morning with pleasure ; the
sun enabled us to look into every corner of the
Abbey ; and I now wish I had then been older, to
have benefited more by the interesting remarks by
my parent and friend.

Mr. Nollekens, during the time his men were
moulding parts of monuments in Westminster
Abbey, had the following conversation with the
late Mr. John Catling, the verger, to the great
amusement of my father, who was also present.
Mr. Nollekens: 'Why, Mr. Catling, you seem to
be as fond of the Abbey as I am of my models by
Michael Angelo. My man, Finny, tells me you was
born in it.' Catling: 'No, not in the Abbey; I
was born in the tower, on the right hand, just
before you enter into the little cloisters.' Nollekens:
4 Oh, I know ; there's some steps to go up, and a
wooden rail to hold by. Now, I wonder you
don't lose that silver thing that you carry before
the Dean, when you are going through the cloisters.
Pray, why do you suffer the schoolboys to chalk the
stones all over ? I have been spelling " pudding,"
"grease," "lard," "butter," "kitchen-stuff," and
I don't know what all.' Catling : ' Whv, therebv
hangs a tale do you know that the Dean married
a woman ?' Nollekens : l Well, so he ought ; the
clergy are allowed to marry nowadays ; it is not
as it was formerly ; you know, I have been at Rome,
and know enough about their customs.' [Here Mr.

1 64 NOLLEKENS AND HIS TIMES

Catling gave Mr. Nollekens an admonitory pinch
upon the elbow, for at that moment the Bishop was
passing through Poets' Corner from the Deanery,
on his way to the House of Lords.] Nollekens:
' What does he carry that bine bag with him for ?'
Catling: 'It contains his papers upon the business
of the day.' Nollekens : ' ( )h, now you talk of
papers, Mrs. Nollekens bid me to ask you where
Ashburnham House is, that held the Cotton paper,
I think it was.' Catling: ' Your good lady means
the Cottonian Manuscripts, sir ; it is in Little
Dean's Yard, on the north side ; it has a stone
entrance, designed by Inigo Jones, and is now
inhabited by Dr. Bell, who was Chaplain to the
Princess Amelia.' Nollekens: ; Oh, I know, he was
robbed by Sixteen - string Jack in Gunnersbury
Lane; thank ye. And she wants to know what
you've done with the wooden figures, with wax
masks, all in silk tatters, that the Westminster
boys called the "Ragged Regiment"; she says
they was always carried before the corpse for-
merly.' Catling: ' Why, we had them all out the
other day, for John Carter and young Smith ttf
draw from ; they are put up in those very narrow
closets, between our wax figures of Queen Elizabeth
and Lord Chatham in his robes, in Bishop Islip's
Chapel, where you have seen the stained-glass of
a boy slipping down a tree, a slip of a tree, and the
eye slipping out of its socket.' Nollekens : ' What !
where the Poll Parrot is ? I wonder you keep such
stuff ; why, at Antwerp, where my father was born,
they put such things in silks outside in the streets.

WESTMINSTER ABBEY 165

I don't mind going to Mrs. Salmon's Waxwork, in
Fleet Street, where Mother Shipton gives yon a kick
as yon are going out. Oh dear ! yon should not have
such rubbish in the Abbey ; and then for yon to take
money for this foolish thing and that foolish thing,
so that nobody can come in to see the line works of
art without being bothered with Queen Catherine's
bones, the Spanish Ambassador's coffin, the lady
who died by pricking her finger, and that nasty
cap of G.eneral Monk's you beg of people to put
money into, just like the money-box that I recollect
they used to put down from the Gate-house. You
had better tell Mr. Dean to see that the monuments
don't want dusting, and to look after the West-
minster bovs, and not let them break the ornaments
off to play at sconce with in the cloisters. Now, at
Rome, and all other churches abroad, a man may
<0 in and draw ; but here he must write and wait,
and be brought up like a criminal before the Dean.
Why, do you know, I have been told thajt Stothard,
one of our Academicians, had a great deal of trouble
with the man ; and then he talked about the proper
fees ! Bless my heart, it's very bad I' 1 Catling :
4 My good sir, you are very severe with us this

1 When all the demands for viewing the various curiosities
of Westminster Abbey are added together, the sum will amount
to a little more now than it did lol years ago, as can be proved
by a reference to Peachan's truly interesting tract, entitled ' The
Worth of a Penny,' published in the year 1667, in which the author
says :

' For a penny you may hear a must eloquent oration upon our
English kings and queens, if, keeping your hands off, you will seriously
listen to David Owen, who keeps the monuments in Westminster.'
Smith.

1 66 NOLLEKENS AND HIS TIMES

morning. Let me ask vou what would become of
the gentlemen of the choir, and myself, as well as
the Dean, if we did not take money ?' Nollekens :
4 What's become of that curious old picture that
used to hang, when I was a boy, next to the
pulpit ?' Catling : ' You mean the whole-length
portrait of King Richard II. in his robes : that is
now put up in the Jerusalem Chamber in the
Deanery ; I have a print of it by Carter.' Nolle-
kens : i My mother had one by Virtue ; she was
acquainted with him, and at that time he lived in
Brownlow Street, Drary Lane. Well, and what has
become of Queen Catherine's bones ?' Catling :
4 Oh, the remains of her bones have been gone
long ago !'

They were now interrupted by old Gayfere, the
Abbey mason, who exclaimed, as he came toddling
on : ' Ah, Mr. Nollekens, are you here ?' Nollekens :
4 Here ! yes ; and why do you suffer that Queen
Anne's altar to remain here, in a Gothic building ?
Send it back to Whitehall, where it came from.
And why don't you keep a better look-out, and not
suffer the fingers of figures and the noses of busts
to be knocked off by them Westminster boys ?'
Gay/ere : ' Why, what an ungrateful little man you
are ! Don't it give you a job now and then ? Did
not Mr. Dolben have a new nose put upon Camden's
face the other day at his own expense ? I believe
I told you that I carried the rods when Fleetcraft
measured the last work at the north tower when
the Abbey was finished.' Nollekens : ' There's the
bell tolling. Oh no, it's the quarters. I used to

WESTMINSTER ABBEY 167

hear them when I was in the Abbey working with
my master Scheemakers. There's a bird flying !'
Gay/ere : ' A bird ? Ay, yon may see a hundred
birds ; they come in at the broken panes of
glass.'

Nollekens : ' Here comes Mr. Champneys. Well,
yon have been singing at St. Paul's, and now you
are come to sing here. Why don't you put a little
more powder in your wig ? Why, it is as brown as
my maid Bronze's skin now is ; that's what is
called a Busby, ain't it ?' Champneys : ' It is, Mr.
Nollekens. Pray how is Mrs. Nollekens ? I was
once a beau of hers.' Nollekens : 'Oh dear ! I was
looking at his monument, to see if it was the same
wig, but he has a cap on.' Champneys : c That's a
fine monument, Mr. Nollekens.' Nollekens : c Yes,
a very good one ; it was done by Bird. 1 Mrs.
Nollekens said he was fond of flogging the West-
minster boys.' Champneys : c It is said so. Our
friend Boberts, of the Exchequer, has Busby's
house at Ealing, where Busby's Walk still remains,
on which the doctor used to exercise of a morning,
to "wash his lungs," as he used to say.' Nollekens :
1 What have you done with the old Gothic pulpit ?'
Catling : ' It has been conveyed to our vestry, the
Chapel of St. Blaize, south of Poets' Corner a
very curious part of the Abbey, not often shown :
did you ever see it ? It's very dark ; there is an
ancient picture, on the east wall, of a figure, which
can be made out tolerably well, after the eye is

1 Francis Bird, called the founder of English sculpture. He was
born in 1667, and died in 1731. Ed.

1 68 NOLLEKENS AND HIS TIMES

accustomed to the dimness of the place. Did you
ever notice the remaining colours of the curious
little figure that was painted on the tomb of
Chaucer?' Nollekens : 'No, that's not at all in
my way.' c Pray, Mr. Nollekens,' asked Mr.
Champneys, ' can you give me the name of the
sculptor who executed the basso-relievo of Towns-
end's monument ? I have applied to several of my
friends among the artists, but I have never been
able to obtain it : in my opinion, the composition
and style of carving are admirable ; but I am sorry
to find that some evil-minded person has stolen one
of the heads.' Nollekens : c That's what I say.
Dean Horsley should look after the monuments
himself. Hang his waxworks ! Yes, I can tell you
who did it Tom Carter had the job, and he
employed another man of the name of Eckstein 1
to model the tablet. It's very clever. I don't
know what else he has done besides ; his brother
kept a public-house, the sign of the Goat and Star,
at the corner of Tash Court, Tash Street, Gray's
Inn Lane. Bartholomew Chenev modelled and
carved the figures of Fame and Britannia for
Captain Cornwall's monument ; Sir Robert Taylor
gave him four pounds fifteen shillings a week.'

One afternoon, whilst I was drawing in the
cloisters of Westminster Abbey, Mr. Gayfere ob-
served that he had met Flaxman. ; Yes,' answered

1 In 1762 the above artist, Mr. John Eckstein, received from the
Society of Arts, for a basso-relievo in Portland stone, the premium of
15 15s., and in 1764, for a basso-relievo in marble, the sum of
52 10s. Smith. Eckstein was a painter as well as a modeller. He
disappeared in 1798, being then about sixty years of age. Ed.

WESTMINSTER 169

I, ' he has just been so good as to point out to me
those beautiful little figures that surround the tomb
of Aymer de Valence, which he advises me to draw
from.' Gay/ere : ' He is a very clever man, and bears
a good character.' [I can safely venture to say that,
had Mr. Gay fere been living now, he would have
said he was a great man, and bore the best of
characters.] Gayfere : ' Pray, did your father ever
see a print or a drawing of the Gate-house Y 4 No,
he never did ; I have often questioned him about it.
I remember it, sir ; it stood, as you well know,
across the street, at the end of the houses opposite
to the west entrance of the Abbey ; one archway
led into Tothill Street, and another, to the left, was
opposite the entrance to Dean's Yard. I recollect
walking under it with my grandmother, and seeing
a tin box that was let down with a string for money
out of one of the windows of the prison, and hear-
ing a person in a hollow voice cry, " Pray remember
the poor prisoners !" So I have at Old Newgate.
That building stood across Newgate Street, near
the south-east corner of St. Sepulchre's Church.
Both these gates were not very unlike the old gate
now remaining of St. John, Clerkenwell, in St.
John's Lane, where Mr. Cave, the predecessor of
the house of Nichols, first printed the Gentleman x
Magazine? Gayfere : ' Did you ever hear the echo
on the centre of Westminster Bridge ? If you 2:0
to one of the middle alcoves, and speak in a whisper,
putting your mouth close to the wall, to a friend on
the opposite side, after he has placed his ear close to
the centre ,of the other alcove, he will hear every

170 NOLLEKENS AND HIS TIMES

syllable you utter as distinctly as he would if you
had both been in the gallery of St. Paul's.'

When ffoino- with Mr. Nollekens one Sunday
morning to see Mr. Gainsborough's pictures, he
stopped at the Duke of Norfolk's house in St.
James's Square, and said, ' There ! in that very
house our King was born ; my mother used to show
it to me.' Recollecting this remark, I applied for
confirmation of it to the Rev. James Dallaway, 1
who had been the late Duke of Norfolk's chaplain,
and, with his usual liberality, he immediately
favoured me with the following very satisfactory
information, which I now give in that gentleman's
own words. ' Arundel House was taken down in
1678, and its site converted into Norfolk, Surrey,
Arundel, and Howard Streets, including what had
been called Arundel Rents. The present Norfolk
House, in St. James's Square, 2 was built from a
design of R. Brettingham in 1742, by Thomas, Duke

1 This gentleman has just completed a new edition of Walpole's
1 Anecdotes of Painters,' in which, I trust, there are not only many of
Lord Orford's errors corrected, but new information given of English
artists, of whom his lordship appeared ignorant. There certainly is
a more interesting account of Vandyke than any that has yet appeared.
Smith. Dallaway was born in 1763, and died in 1834. Ed.

2 It had been previously the site of St. Alban's House, built by
Htnry Jernrvn, Earl of St. Albans, and was sold by Henry, Duke of
Portland, for 10,000. In 1738 only the buildings on the north side
of the inner court were completed, which were lent to Frederick,
Prince of Wales, as a temporary residence till Leicester House was
finished. On May 24, 1738, the late King George was born, and,
being very sickly, was baptized the same day. He was a seven-
months child. Prince Frederick presented the Duchess of Norfolk
with miniatures in enamel of himself and the Princess, set in
brilliants.' Smith.

THE TOWN LEY VENUS 171

of Norfolk, and finished by his brother Edward
in 176.'

As we were turning round to proceed to Pall
Mall, Mr. Charles Townley accosted Mr. Nollekens,
who immediately, in the open street, loudly com-
menced his observations in what he thought the
Italian language ; but as he was very noisy in his
jargon, Mr. Townley requested him to confine him-
self to English, or the people in the street would
notice them. Mr. Townlev then desired him to
send for his small Venus, in order to model a pair
of arms to it. That gentleman also wished him to
try them in various positions, such as holding a
dove, the beak of which might touch her lips,
entwining a wreath, or looking at the eye of a
serpent. Nollekens : l Well, I'll send for it, then ;
shall you be at home when my man comes ?'
Mr. Townley: 'Send to-morrow at ten o'clock,
when I shall be at home.' Nollekens: 'Which way
now are you going?' Mr. Townley: 'This way,
Mr. Nollekens ; good-morning to you !' Nollekens
called after him, ' Well, I'll send.' Strange to tell,
I stood to Mr. Nollekens for all the various posi-
tions he could devise for the arms, and after six
changes the present ones were carved, the right
one of which is too much like one of the arms of
the Venus de Medici, which are looked upon as the
work of Baccio Bandinelli. This statue is now in
the British Museum, and measures three feet six
inches and five-eights, including the plinth. A
modern editor has roundly asserted that Gavin
Hamilton directed Mr. Nollekens in his restora-

172 NOLLEKENS AND HIS TIMES

tion of the arms of this statue. Gavin Hamilton 1
was in Rome at the time.

Upon our* arrival at Mr. Gainsborough's, the
third west division of Schomberg House, Pall Mall,
the artist was listening to a violin, and held up his
finger to Mr. Nollekens as a request of silence.
Colonel Hamilton was playing to him in so
exquisite a style that Gainsborough exclaimed,
' Now, my dear Colonel, if you will but go on, I
will give you that picture of the boy at the stile,
which you have so often wished to purchase of me.'
Mr. Gainsborough, not knowing how long Nollekens
would hold his tongue, gave him a book of sketches
to choose two from, which he had promised him.
As Gainsborough's versatile fancy was at this
period devoted to music, his attention was so
riveted to the tones of the violin that for nearly
half an hour he was motionless ; after which the
Colonel requested that a hackney-coach might be
sent for, wherein he carried off the picture. It has
been engraved by Stow, 2 a pupil of Woollett. Mr.
Gainsborough, after he had given Mr. Nollekens
the two drawings he had selected, requested him to
look at the model of an ass's head which he had just
made. Nollekeiis: 'You should model more with

1 Gavin Hamilton, a Scotch portrait-painter, born at Lanark in
1730, spent the greater part of his life in Rome, and was considered
the leading authority on Roman antiquities. He died in that city in
1797 of a fever caused by anxiety lest the French invaders should
destroy his beloved monuments. Ed.

2 James Stow, a line-engraver, the son of an agricultural labourer.
His precocious promise led to his beiog largely patronized ; his talent,
however, soon evaporated. He was apprenticed to Woollett, and then
to W. Sharp. En.

GAINSBOROUGH 173

your thumbs ; thumb it about till you get it into
shape.' ' What,' said Gainsborough, ' in this
manner ?' having taken up a bit of clay, and
looking at a picture of Abel's Pomeranian Dog
which hung over the chimney-piece * this way ?'
Yes,' said Nollekens ; ' you'll do a great deal more
with your thumbs.'

Mr. Gainsborough, by whom I was standing,
observed to me : ' You enjoyed the music, my little
fellow, and I am sure you long for this model ;
there, I will give it to you ' and I am delighted
with it still. I have never had it baked, fearing it
might fly in the kiln, as the artist had not kneaded
the clay well before he commenced working it, and
I conclude that the model must still contain a
quantity of fixed air.

Colonel Hamilton above-mentioned was not only
looked upon as one of the first amateur violin-
players, but also one of the first gentlemen pugilists.
I was afterwards noticed by him in my art as an
etcher of landscapes ; and have frequently seen him
spar with the famous Mendoza in his drawing-room
in Leicester Street, Leicester Square.

The following dialogue took place in Greenwood's
auction-room, during the sale of Barnard's collec-
tion of drawings, between Mr. Nollekens and
Panton Betew. Mr. Betew had been a silversmith
of the old school, and also a dealer in pictures,
drawings, and other works of art. I recollect him
well in my boyish days, at his house in Old
Compton Street, Soho, at which time he was
generally accosted by his old friends under the

174 NOLLEKENS AND HIS TIMES

free-and-easy appellation of Fanny. Mr. Panton
Betew : ' Well, Mr. Nollekens, time has made little
difference in yonr looks ; you walk just in the same
way, with your cane and your ruffles, as you did
twenty years ago, when I sold you Roubiliac's
model, which he designed for General Wolfe's
monument ; Wilton was the successful candidate,
he gained the order.' Nollekens : 4 1 remember it
very well ; you would have the odd sixpence of me.
Pray what became of that poor fellow, Chattelain, 1
who used to work for Vivares ? I once saw several
of his drawings in your window.' Betew : ' Yes, I
bought many drawings of him ; and there's a great
deal of spirit in what he did. But he died at the
White Bear in Piccadillv ; the landlord came to
me, knowing that I knew him, to ask me to attend
his funeral. Poor fellow ! the parish buried him
in the Pest Fields, Carnaby Market. I went,
Vivares 2 went, and so did M'Ardell and several
others. I recollect well, he was a Roman Catholic,
and all the common people who frequented the
Romish Chapel in Warwick Street followed ; and
the bovs called it an Irish funeral, for there were
very few of us in black coats.' Nollekens : ' Poor
fellow ! I lost sight of him for some years, and
could not tell what had become of him. I re-
member a tallow-chandler used to lend me some of
his drawings to copy when I was quite a youngster.'

1 Jean Baptiste Claude Chatelaine (1710-1771). His real name was
Philippe. Ed.

2 Thomas Vivare?, the landscape engraver (1709-1780), a pupil of
Chatelaine. Ed.

NATHANIEL TULL 175

Betew : ' Ay, I had many drawings and pictures by
young artists, very clever fellows ; but they are
nearly all gone now. There was Brooking, 1 the
ship-painter : he died, poor fellow ! just as he was
getting into full song, as the saying is ; and there
was Tull, 2 the landscape-painter, he was a genius :
he married the King's butcher's daughter, in St.
James's Market, and became the schoolmaster at
Queen Elizabeth's School in Tooley Street, in the
Borough.

c I have a few of his pictures by me now ; his
style was an imitation of Hobbima's. Vivares has
engraved four of them, and very pretty they are.
His colouring was rather black ; but he was a self-
taught artist, as people call those who don't
regularly study under others, but pick up their
information by degrees. Well, and then there was
your great Mr. Gainsborough ; I have had many
and many a drawing of his in my shop-window
before he went to Bath. Ay, and he has often
been glad to receive seven or eight shillings from
me for what I have sold : Paul Sandby knows it
well.' Nollekens : c What do you want for that
model of a boy ? I suppose you have got it still ?'
Betew : i Why, now, why can't you say Fiamingo's
boy ? You know it to be one of his, and you also
know that no man ever modelled boys better than
he did : it is said that he was employed to model
children for Rubens to put into his pictures.'

1 Charles Brooking (1723-1759), who painted in the dockyard at
Deptford. Ed.

2 Nathaniel Tull, who died in 1762. Ed.

176 NOLLEKENS AND HIS TIMES

Nollekens : ' Well, what must I give you for it ?'
Betew : l Fifteen shillings is the money I want for
it.' Nollekens : ' No ; ten.' Betew : ' Now, my old
friend, how can you rate art in that manner ? You
would not model one for twentv times ten ; and if
you did, you could not think of comparing it with
that. Why, vou are obliged to s^ive more at
auctions when Lord Rockingham or Mr. Burke is
standing by you. No, I will not 'bate a farthing.'
Nollekens : ' Well, I'll take it. Do you still buy
broken silver ? I have some odd sleeve-buttons,
and Mrs. Nollekens wants to get rid of a chased
watch-case by old Moser one that he made when
lie used to model for the Bow manufactory.'
Betew : ' Ay, I know there were many very clever
things produced there. What very curious heads
for canes they made at that manufactory ! I think
Crowther was the proprietor's name ; he had a very
beautiful daughter, who is married to Sir James
Lake. Nat. Hone painted a portrait of her in the
character of Diana, and it was one of his best
pictures. There were some clever men who
modelled for the Bow concern, and they produced
several spirited figures : Quin in FalstafF ; Garrick
in Richard ; Frederick, Duke of Cumberland, striding
triumphantly over the Pretender, who is begging
quarter of him ; John Wilkes, and so forth.'
Nollekens : ' Mr. Moser, who was the keeper of
our Academy, modelled several things for them.
He was a chaser originally.' Betew : ' Bless you !
I knew him well. My friend Grignon, the watch-
maker, in Russell Street, Covent Garden, advised

CHELSEA CHINA 177

him to learn to enamel trinkets for watches ; and
he succeeded so well that the Queen patronized
him, and he did several things for the King. It is
said his Majesty was so pleased with him that he
once ordered him a hatful of money for some of
his works/ Nollekens : ' So I've heard.' Betew :
4 Chelsea was another place for china.' Nollekens :
c Do yon know where that factory stood ?' Betew :
4 Why, it stood upon the site of Lord Dartery's
house, just beyond the bridge.' Nollekens : i My
father worked for them at one time.' Betew: 'Yes,
and Sir James Thornhill designed for them. Mr.
Walpole, at Strawberry Hill, has a dozen plates by
Sir James, which he purchased at Mrs. Hogarth's
sale in Leicester Square. Paul Ferg 1 painted for
them. Ay, that was a curious failure. The
cunning rogues produced very white and delicate
ware ; but then they had their clay from China,
which when the Chinese found out, they would not
let the captains have any more clay for ballast,
and the consequence was that the whole concern
failed.'

Many of my readers may recollect Fielding's
descriptions of the Man of the Hill, in his l Tom
Jones,' and such another human form Nature dis-
played in Panton Betew : his dress differed from
the general mode ; he wore a loose dark-brown
greatcoat, with, generally, a red cloth waistcoat,
black shalloon small-clothes, dark -gray w r orsted

1 Francis Paul Ferg, an Austrian landscape-painter, born in Vienna
in 1689. He came to London in 1718, and worked here until his death
in 1740. Ed.

12

178 NOLLE KENS AND HIS TIMES

stockings, easy square-toed shoes, with small silver
buckles, and a large slouched hat with a close
round crown, without the least nap, being often
brushed, for cleanliness' sake, with the shoe,
shining, or table brush.

He was well known to all the fish-vendors in
Lombard Court, Seven Dials, as a purchaser of fish
for two ; which provender he was not ashamed to
carry home in a dark snuff-coloured silk handker-
chief, always taking care to hold it in his right
hand, that he might display a brilliant ring, which
he said he wore in memory of his mother. The
watchman shut and opened his shop. I remember
his leaving Old Compton Street for one of his
mother's houses in Nassau Street, St. James's
Market, and afterwards his living in a house in
Chelsea, beyond what was formerly called the Five
Fields : upon which a new city of most magnificent
mansions is now in course of building, to the
wonderful increase of the princely income of the
Earl Grosvenor.

In his house at Chelsea, where Betew died, my
father and I have often visited him. Independently
of his knowledge of the origin of the artists of
the last century, he was a well-informed person
upon the general topics of conversation ; and he
has been heard to say that he liked to converse
with a man whom he could swop an idea with. He
was intimate with Hogarth, and frequently pur-
chased pieces of plate with armorial bearings
engraved upon them by that artist, which he cleared
out for the next possessor ; but, unfortunately for

HOGARTH 179

the Stanleyean Collection, without rubbing off a
single impression.

This was not the case with Morison, a silver-
smith, who at that time lived in Cheapside ; he took
off twenty-five impressions of a large silver dish,
engraved by Hogarth, which impressions he not
only numbered as they were taken off, but attested
each with his own signature. Should this page
meet the eyes of any branches of the good old-
fashioned families which have carefully preserved
the plate of Oliver their uncle or Deborah their
aunt, I sincerely implore them, should the armorial
bearings be the production of the early part of
the last century, to cause a few impressions to be
taken from them ; for I am inclined to believe
it very possible that some curious specimens of
Hogarth's dawning genius may yet in that way be
rescued from future furnaces.

The following use was made of Hogarth's plates
of the Idle and Industrious Apprentices, by the
late John Adams, of Edmonton, schoolmaster : The
prints were framed and hung up in the schoolroom,
and Adams, once a month, after reading a lecture
upon their vicious and virtuous examples, rewarded
those boys who had conducted themselves well, and
caned those who had behaved ill.

[ i8o]

CHAPTER VIII.

Mr. Nollekens' opinion of colossal sculpture Restorations of the
paintings at Whitehall Increase of the value of modern pictures
Remarkable old houses and customs Mrs. Nollekens' visits
Ireland's 'Yortigern' London cries Sir Peter Lely's sale Nolle-
kens at the Academy Club and at Harrogate His Venus model
Meanness of Mrs. Nollekens Miss Hawkins and her anecdotes.

Nollekens at all times strongly reprobated colossal
sculpture, more especially when commenced by the
too daring student in the art ; and, indeed, when-
ever anyone led to the subject, he would deliver
his opinion, even to persons of the first fashion
and rank, with as much freedom as if he were
chiding his mason's boy, Kit Finny, for buying"
scanty paunches for his yard-dog Cerberus. ' No,
no, my lord !' he would vociferate, with an in-
creased nasal and monotonous tone of voice, ' a
grand thing don't depend upon the size, I can assure
you of that. A large model certainly produces a
stare, and is often admired by ignorant people ;
but the excellence of a work of art has nothing to
do with the size, that you may depend upon from
me.' In this he unquestionably was correct, as
the graceful elegance of a Cellini cup or a bell for

COLOSSAL SCULPTURE

181

the Pope's table does not consist in immensity. I
have a cast from an antique bronze figure only
three inches in height, which, from its justness
of proportion and dignity of attitude, strikes the
beholder, when it is elevated only nine inches above
his eye, with an idea of its being a figure full thirty
feet in height.

I well recollect my playfellow, John Deare, 1 the
sculptor, powerfully maintaining that grandeur
never depended upon magnitude. A preposterously
large figure, like Gog or Magog in Guildhall, or the
giant and giantess of Antwerp, would, without
dignity and breadth of style and just proportion,
exhibit nothing beyond a mass of overwhelming
lumber. ' What !' he would exclaim, 4 is not that
beautiful gem of Hercules strangling the lion a
work of grand art ? and that figure is contained
in less than the space of an inch.' This is also my
own humble opinion, for I think that Simon's 2
Dunbar medals, of which I have now some most
beautiful casts before me, are quite as grand as
any of the finest busts by Nollekens. I am quite
certain that if a talented medallist were to execute
a series of heads from the finest of Nollekens' busts
of persons of the highest eminence, his labours
wou,ld meet with great encouragement ; but he
must honestly copy, and not attempt even the
slightest alteration, for by such sophistications he

1 This very remarkable man was born at Liverpool in 1759, and
died at Rome in 1795. See prefatory essay. Ed.

2 Thomas Simon, chief medallist at the Mint to Charles I., Crom-
well, and Charles II. He was an artist of admirable merit. Ed.

1 82 NOLLEKENS AND HIS TIMES

would make a botched medal, for which he never
should, if I had my wish, receive more than the
weight of the metal. Many of Chantry's finest
busts have been in this manner most disgracefully
misrepresented. That a figure should be of in-
creased dimensions the higher it is placed above
the eye of the spectator is beyond a doubt, since
if it were only the size of life it would dwindle into
insignificance, particularly if placed on the top of
the monument on Fish Street Hill ; for that pillar
being 202 feet in height, it would require a statue
of full 14 feet. The figures of the Apostles sculp-
tured by Bird on the top of St. Paul's are more
than twice the height of a man ; but what appeared
most astonishing to me when a boy was the enormous
magnitude of the figures surrounding the apotheosis
of King James I., painted upon the ceiling of White-
hall by Rubens.

My father being intimately acquainted with
Cipriani, took me up to the scaffold when that
artist was repairing the picture, and to our great
astonishment they measured the enormous height
of 9 feet. This appears hardly credible, as they
look no larger than life when viewed from the
floor. Upon an investigation, in consequence of
a report that there was a very fine copy of this
work of Rubens as a fixture in a house on the
south side of Leicester Fields, I found that the
curiously ornamented papier-mache parlour ceiling
of No. 41 had been painted, though very indiffer-
ently, by some persons who had borrowed groups
of figures from several of Rubens' designs, which

THE WHITEHALL CEILING 183

they had unskilfully combined. This ceiling is
divided into three compartments ; in the centre
one there is a figure with a head resembling King
Charles I., and in that at the south end of the room
is another of King James I., evidently painted from
recollection, as it is so ill done, of that of the same
sovereign at Whitehall. I consider this visit, how-
ever, as well bestowed, since it may possibly, in
some measure, set at rest the assertion so roundly
and fallaciously propagated, should the premises
ever be destroyed, and the loss of the ceiling be
deplored by those who had never seen it. Cipriani
excelled as a draughtsman ; his style of colouring
in oil-pictures was rather cold, and sometimes hard,
particularly when compared with the luxuriantly
sunny glow of Eubens' pictures. However, it was
a very profitable employment for him, as it is said
he had 1,000 for repairing it, and an enormous
sum for retouching it only. I verily believe he
must have repainted it wholesale, or such an
amount would never have been sanctioned by the
officers in whom payment was invested. I am
quite certain such a charge would be closely looked
into at present.

It is a curious fact that though this ceiling of
Whitehall is so grand in its design, and is, indeed,
I believe, the only work of such magnitude from
the mind of Rubens in England, few people, com-
paratively with the tens of thousands who pass the
building daily, know anything about it. However,
I consider it but fair for the high reputation of
Rubens as a colourist to state that this picture has

184 NOLLEKENS AND HIS TIMES

been restored, repainted, and refreshed not fewer than
three times.

In the reign of King James II., 1687, Parry
Walton, a painter of still life, and Keeper of the
Kind's Pictures, was suffered to retouch this orand
work of art, which then had been painted only sixty
years, as appears by the Privy Council book, in
which Mr. Parry Walton's demand of 212 for
its complete restoration was considered by Sir
Christopher Wren c as very modest and reasonable.'
Mr. Cipriani, as above stated, repainted it a second
time ; and last of all, Rigaud was employed to
refresh it.

There is a most excellent engraving of this
ceiling, in three sheets, by Gribelin, the same artist
who executed that pretty set of prints from the
Cartoons, by Raffaelle, at Hampton Court. This
design of Rubens for, as it has been so often
cleaned and painted upon, there can be but little
of his colouring visible at this moment would still
afford employment to the living ; at least, to the
novelist, who might, by stating all its multifarious
vicissitudes under Follv's innovations, render it a
subject for a work fully as entertaining and equally
lucrative as 'The History of a Guinea,' 'A Shilling,'
or ' A Gold-headed Cane.'

For instance, let us suppose Rubens, shocked at
the contaminated effect of his own canvas, peti-
tioning his great and liberal patron, Charles I., to
invoke St. Luke to leave his easel, and to order an
investigation into the conduct of the Surveyors-
General, commencing with Sir Christopher Wren,

RUBENS

and proceeding with others of the craft who have
flourished from his time to the late reign, in order,
if possible, to discover how they could ever have
sanctioned so barefaced a change. This inquiry
should be wholly confined to the honour of Rubens'
pencil, and in no degree whatsoever as to the orders
given for the barbarously smearing or refreshing,
as Eigaud termed it, of the lively portraiture of King-
James I., a monarch whom no one could possibly
think of sending to heaven for his patronage of the
fine arts ; nor would St. Luke be willing to intro-
duce him there, though that saint, according to
Spence's anecdote, had some influence with St.
Peter when Sir Godfrey Kneller was admitted.

The umpires ought to consist of Sir Peter Paul's
seven brother knights of the pallet, who have
practised from the reign of the above monarch to
the present day, viz., Sir Anthony Vandyke, Sir
Peter Lely, Sir Godfrey Kneller, Sir James Thorn-
hill, Sir Joshua Reynolds, Sir William Beechey,
and, lastly, Sir Thomas Lawrence, who, like
Rubens, was honoured with a gold chain from the
hand of a King of England. By such chronological
arrangement, and as the four first-named gentlemen
must, beyond a reprieve, agree to the execution of
the culprits, the latter three would not be under
the necessity of signing for the rope for two of the
scrubbers and smudgers. As several of those
fraternities which are now fitly nicknamed ' painters
and glaziers ' so impudently recommend old pictures
that have been thus ' restored,' ' repainted,' and 're-

freshed ' as the onlv things worth v the attention of

1 86 NOLLE KENS AND HIS TIMES

the man of fortune, I have great pleasure in record-
ing the triumph lately obtained over them in the
sale of Lord de Tabley's pictures by modern Eng-
lish artists, which actually produced twenty-five
per cent, more than they cost his lordship, though
they were purchased of the artists at what they
considered most liberal prices. On this occasion
the pretenders alluded to were severely exposed by
Mr. Christie. Mr. Nollekens also died possessed of
three pictures by an English artist, Eichard Wilson,
which cost his father-in-law, Mr. Welch, only about
a tenth part of the sum the said Mr. Christie sold
them for.

One spring morning, as I was passing through
Covent Garden, I was accosted by Mrs. Elizabeth
Carter, who had accompanied Mrs. Nollekens
thither for the purpose of purchasing some roots
of dandelion, an infusion of which had been strongly
recommended to her husband by Dr. Jebb. Twigg,
the fruiterer, to whom Mr. Justice Welch, during
his magistracy, had often been kind, was at all
times gratefully attentive to Miss Welch and her
sister, Mrs. Nollekens. He procured the roots she
wanted from that class of people called 4 simplers,'
who sit in the centre of the Garden. The fruiterer
was a talkative man, and was called by some of his
jocular friends the ' Twig of the Garden'; he had
been cook at the Shakespeare Tavern, and knew all
the wits and eccentric characters of his early days.

Mrs. Carter, though she was seldom fond of
noticing strangers, fell by degrees into a conver-
sation with Twigg, and asked him which house it

TWIGG, THE FRUITERER 187

was in Tavistock Row that Miss Wray, who was
shot by the Rev. James Hackman, occupied before
she resided with Lord Sandwich ; to which he
replied : c It was that on the south-west corner of
Tavistock Court, next to the one in which the
famous William Vandevelde, the marine-painter,
died.' 1 This corner house, No. 4, is now occupied
by a tailor ; and that in which Vandevelde lived,
now No. 5, is inhabited by Irish Johnstone, as he
is usually called, that once delightful singer and
excellent actor of the characters of Irishmen.
' Pray,' continued the lady, ' which was Zincke's, 2
the celebrated enameller's ?' ' Why, ma'am,' said
he, 4 it is No. 13, that in which Mr. Nathaniel
Dance, the painter, afterwards lived. Meyer,
another famous miniature-painter, resided in it, and
the garrets are now occupied by Peter Pindar
(Dr. Wolcot). I recollect, ma'am,' continued the
fruiterer, ' old Joe, who was the first person who
sold flowers in this Garden ; his stand was at that
corner within the enclosure, then called Primrose
Hill, opposite to Low's Hotel. This spot was so
named in consequence of its being the station of
those persons who brought primroses to the Garden.
Low had been a hairdresser in Tavistock Street
before he took that large house, which he estab-
lished as a family hotel, the earliest of that de-
scription in London, where he distributed medals,
which procured him many lodgers.'

1 On April 6, 1707. Ed.

2 Christian Friedrich Zincke (1684-1767), cabinet - painter to
Frederick, Prince of Wales. Ed.

NOLLEKENS AND HIS TIMES

Mrs. Nollekens then requested to know which
house it was in James Street where her father's
old friend, Mr. Charles Grignon, resided, the
engraver so extensively and for so many years
employed upon the designs of Gravelot, Hayman,
and Wale. ' No. 27,' said Twigg ; ' I recollect
the old house when it was a shop inhabited by
two old Frenchwomen, who came over here to
chew paper for the papier-mache people.' Mrs.
Nollekens : ' Eidiculous ! I think Mr. Nollekens
once told me that the elder Wilton, Lady Chambers'
grandfather, was the person who employed people
from France to work in the papier-mache manu-
factory which he established in Edward Street,
Cavendish Square.' Twigg : ' I can assure you,
ma'am, these women bought the paper-cuttings
from the stationers and bookbinders and produced
it in that way, in order to keep it a secret, before
they used our machine for mashing it.' Mrs. Carter :
I recollect, sir, when Mr. Garrick acted, hackney-
chairs were then so numerous that they stood all
round the Piazzas, down Southampton Street, and
extended more than half-way along Maiden Lane,
so much were they in requisition at that time.'
Twigg : Then I suppose, ma'am, you also recollect
the shoeblacks at every corner of the streets, whose
cry was "Black your shoes, your honour ?" ' Yes,
sir, perfectly well ; and the clergyman of your
parish walking about and visiting the fruit-shops in
the Garden in his canonicals. And I likewise re-
member a very portly woman sitting at her fruit-
stall in a dress of lace, which it was said cost at

CARD-PARTIES 189

least one hundred guineas, though a greater sum
was often mentioned.'

Here this dialogue about old times ended, by the
entrance of several other customers, upon which
Mrs. Carter and Mrs. Nollekens left the shop to
pay a morning visit to Mrs. Garrick, and I made
my bow.

Mr. Nollekens' uncultivated manners were at
times so truly disagreeable to his sister-in-law,
Miss Welch whose talents were highly appreciated
by the literati of the day that whenever she re-
ceived her friends at a card-party he was seldom
invited; but Mrs. Nollekens, whom her sister was
very fond of showing off, always attended them.
To please her economical husband she would appear
to acquiesce in his opinion, that her shape was better
shown by a close simple dress ; for, in doing this, she
could save a shilling in coach-hire, by going early
in a plain gown, time enough to dress at her sister's,
where she had by slow degrees conveyed various
articles of finery, until she had lodged a pretty
good wardrobe in one of the spare upper closets.
Upon entering the drawing-room close behind those
who had last knocked, her name was announced as
if just arrived, and she has been seen to make as
formal a curtsey to her sister as to the rest of the
party.

At these ceremonious card-parties Mrs. Nolle-
kens, who, the reader will recollect, played the
strict Hoyle game, would remain till she found
herself in possession of more than she sat down
with, and then inquired if her servant were below.

190 NOLLEKENS AND HIS TIMES

Poor Bronze then attended her to the upper
chamber, where, after changing her dress, she
remained in her camlet- cloak till the whole of the
visitors were gone, and then the foot which had been
that evening graced with a silver- spangled slipper
was pressed into a wooden clog. Thus equipped,
Mrs. Nollekens, on leaving the house, placed her
delicately-formed arm upon that of her faithful
servant, whose swarthy hue her mistress could
scarcely by daylight bear to look upon, but upon
these occasions she condescended to rest upon her
with perfect confidence.

Nollekens was at times so ridiculously soft that,
in several instances, he approached what was
formerly called the 'Colley-Molley' class of beings
men who were fond of lacing the stays and carry-
ing the fans or pattens of their spouses, whose
character is so admirably portrayed by Foote in
his 'Jerry Sneak.' In the exercise of some of his
accommodating attentions to the will of his fair
partner, his good-natured weakness exposed him to
the notice of a friend, who was induced to watch
him one night in Bloom sbury Square dangling a
lantern in attendance upon his wife and her sister
Miss Welch, on their economical pedestrian return
home from a formal cribbage-party.

Nollekens, anxious to get home to bed, was
generally foremost, and often proceeded, though
with a toddling gait, so much too fast for the
clogged ladies behind him that Mrs. Nollekens
was often heard to cry, c Stop, sir, pray stop !' but
Miss Welch of late years seldom spoke to him.

SAMUEL IRELAND 191

He would then with clue obedience slacken his pace
into a dawdling creep, suffer them to pass, and lag
so considerably behind that he was now and then
openly and roundly charged with indulging in a nap.
Upon these occasions they thought it wisest to wait
his coming up with the lantern, upon pretence of
seeing that all the umbrellas were safe under his
arm ; but in reality for fear of a rude embrace
from some boisterous perambulator of the streets,
under the influence of Bacchus or Thrale's Entire ;
and whenever there was a wide puddle to cross,
Mrs. Nollekens always made a point of seeing
her husband safe over first, by insisting upon
his maintaining a proper precedence on such
occasions.

Samuel Ireland 1 had entreated Mrs. Nollekens to
persuade her husband to go to the representation of
what he called Shakespeare's play of ' Vortigern ';
and when he informed her that my father and I
were going, she acquiesced, fully relying upon our
taking care of him. The crowds which had
assembled at the doors of Drury Lane Theatre
long before the hours of admission were immense,
and the anxiety of Ireland for the success of the
play was so great that he caused a hand-bill to be
printed and thrown crumpled up by hundreds among
the people ; and as that bill is now esteemed rather
a rare theatrical relic, the reader is presented with
a copy of one which fell to my lot.

1 Samuel William Henry Ireland, who wrote the spurious tragedy
of 'Vortigern' (1777-1835). He was the son of another Samuel
Ireland (1750-1800), the author of 'Picturesque Tours.' Ed.

192 NOLLEKENS AND HIS TIMES

'"VORTIGERN."

4 A malevolent and impotent attack on the Shakspeare MSS. having
appeared on the eve of representation of the play of " Vortigern,"
evidently intended to injure the interest of the proprietor of the
MSS., Mr. Ireland feels it impossible, within the short space of time
that intervenes between the publishing and the representation, to
produce an answer to the most illiberal and unfounded assertions in
Mr. Malone's inquiry. He is therefore induced to request that the
play of " Vortigern " may be heard with that candour that has ever
distinguished a British audience.

t #^# The play is now at the press, and will in a very few days be
laid before the public'

After great patience and much crowding we
moved in, and, when safely seated in the pit, con-
gratulated ourselves upon the possession of our
shoes ; whilst Mr. Nollekens recognised Miles
Petit Andrews, Flaxman, and several others whom
he knew. The play went on pretty well until
Kemble appeared, when the noise of disapprobation
commenced, and being considered by the audience
as an atrocious fraud, it was at length completely
condemned.

Frequently when Mr. Nollekens has been model-
ling, he has imitated the cries of the itinerant
venders as they were passing by. I recollect the
cries of two men pleasing him so extravagantly
that he has continued to hum their notes for days
together, even when he has been engaged with his
sitters, measurino; the stone in the vard for a bust
or a figure, feeding the dog, putting up the bar
of the gate, or improving the attitudes of his
Venuses.

The late Dr., Kitchener, whose musical powers
were so very generally acknowledged, kindly

MUSICAL CRIES

193

condescended to note down the following music of
these cries, from my recollection, whereby I am
enabled to gratify the reader with the very sound
itself. 1

iSiHa

Buy a Bowl, Dish, or a Platter ; come buy my Wood-en Ware.

!iH!^i

#-

5=fc

^a

^fi^pgyi^a^sg

Buy an Al - ma-nack, a Sheet Al-ma-nack, or a Book Al-ma-nack.

M,f H^t

=z*

In a copy of Hawkins' ' History of Music,' in
the British Museum, at page 75 in the fifth volume,
there is the following manuscript note respecting
the famous Tom Britton, the musical small-coal
man. 2 l The goodness of his ear directed him to

1 During the last nine years Dr. Kitchiner wrote the following
works : ' Economy of the Eyes ' (Part I., ' Of Spectacles ' ; Part II.,
! Of Telescopes '), ' The Cook's Oracle,' l Art of Invigorating Life,'
' Observations on Singing/ ' National Songs of England,' l Life and
Sea-Songs of Dibdin,' ' Housekeeper's Ledger,' ' Century of Surgeons,'
4 Traveller's Oracle.' The Doctor composed and selected the music of
the opera of 'Ivanhoe' for Covent Garden Theatre, composed the
whole of the music for 'Love among the Roses,' for the English
Opera, Fifty English Ballads,' ' An Universal Prayer,' ' The Hymn
of Faith,' ' The English Grace,' and ' The Lord's Prayer.' Number
sold, 55,250 volumes. Smith. Dr. William Kitchiner, born in 1775,
died 1827. Ed.

2 Born 1654, died 1714. Ed.

13

i 9 4 NOLLE KENS AND HIS TIMES

the use of the most perfect of all musical intervals,
the diapason or octave, his cry being, as some
relate that remember it :

Small Coal.

The public have frequently been amused at the
theatres by actors who have mimicked the cries of
London. I remember hearing Baddeley whine the
cry of ' Periwinkles, a wine-quart a penny, peri-
winkles. Come buy my shrimps, come buy my
shrimps ; a crab, will you buy a crab ?' I have
also heard that excellent comedian John Bannister
cry:

1 Come, neighbours, see and buy ; here's
Your long and strong scarlet ware ;
Scarlet garters twopence a pair,
Twopence a pair ! twopence a pair !'

Upon my mentioning this to Mr. Bannister, he
did not immediately recollect it ; though in a few
moments he said : c You are right, and it was at the
Little Theatre in the Haymarket. Did you ever,
my good fellow, hear of Ned Shuter's imitations of
the London cries ? He was the most famous chap
at that' sort of thing ; indeed, so fond of it that he
would frequently follow people for hours together
to get their cries correctly. I recollect a story
which he used to tell of his following a man who
had a peculiar cry, up one street and down another,
nearly a whole day to get his cry, but the man
never once cried ; at last, being quite out of temper,
he went up to the fellow, and said, " You don't

OLD CORKS 195

cry ; why the devil don't you cry ?" The man
answered in a piteous tone, " Cry ! Lord bless your
heart, sir, I can't cry ; my vifes dead ; she died
this morning." '

Besides the musical cries mentioned above about
sixty years back, there were also two others yet
more singular, which, however, were probably
better known in the villages round London than in
the Metropolis itself. The first of these was used
by an itinerant dealer in corks, sometimes called
Old Corks, who rode upon an ass, and carried his
wares in panniers on each side of him. He sat with
much dignity, and wore upon his head a velvet cap ;
and his attractive cry, which was partly spoken and
partly sung, but all in metre, was something like
the following fragment :

Spoken. * Corks for sack

I have at my back ;
Sung. All bandy, all handy ;

Some for wine and some for brandy.
Spoken. Corks for cholic- water,

Cut 'em a little shorter ;

Corks for gin,

Very thin ;

Corks for rum,

As big as my thumb ;

Corks for ale,

Long and pale ;
Sung. They're all handy, all handy,

Some for wine and some for brandy.'

The other cry, which was much more musical,
was that of two persons, father and son, who sold
lines. The father, in a strong, clear tenor, would
begin the strain in the major key, and when he had

196 NOLLE KENS AND HIS TIMES

finished, his son, who followed at a short distance
behind him, in a shrill falsetto, would repeat it in
the minor, and their call consisted of the following
words :

' Buy a white-line,
Or a jack-line,
Or a clock-line,
Or a hair-line,

Or a line for your clothes here.'

In order to render this little work a book of
reference to the London topographer as well as to
the historian, I have occasionally given, and shall
continue to give, the residences of persons of
notoriety, as well as their places of birth, death,
and burial points which, I am sorry to say, are
not always attended to by biographers.

The house in Great Queen Street, now divided
into two, Nos. 55 and 56, was that in which Hudson
lived ; it was afterwards the last habitation of Wor-
lidge, 1 the etcher, who died in it. Hoole, the trans-
lator of Tasso, and the beloved friend of Dr.
Johnson, next resided in it, and he was succeeded
by Eichard Brinsley Sheridan, who, after Garrick's
funeral, passed there the remainder of the day in
silence with a few select friends. It was lately
inhabited by Mr. Chippendale. 2 This house is one
of those built after a design of Inigo Jones, and
still retains much of its original architecture.

The street was named Queen Street in compli-
ment to Henrietta Maria. ' My old friend,' Mr.

1 Thomas Worlidge (1700-1766), called ' Scritch-scratch,' an imitator
of Rembrandt. Ed.

2 Thomas Chippendale, the famous cabinet-maker. Ed.

CO VENT GARDEN 197

Batridge, the barber, as Mr. Hone in his ' Every-
day Book ' has been pleased to called him, in-
formed me that he very well recollected the gate-
entrance into Great Queen Street from Drury Lane.
It was under a house, and was so long and dark
that it received the fearful appellation of ' Hell
Gate.' Through this gate the Dukes of Newcastle
and Ancaster drove to their houses in Lincoln's Inn
Fields, at that time the seat of fashion ; which can
readily be conceived, when the reader recollects
that Grosvenor Square was building when Mr.
Nollekens was a little boy.

Co vent Garden was the first square inhabited by
the great ; for immediately upon the completion of
the houses on the north and east sides of Covent
Garden, which were all that were uniformly built
after the design of Inigo Jones, they were every one
of them inhabited by persons of the first title and
rank, as appears by the parish books of the rates at
that time.

The chambers occupied by Richard Wilson were
portions of the house successively inhabited by Sir
Peter Lely, Sir Godfrey Kneller, and Sir James
Thornhill ; and, by way of rather a curious treat
to the connoisseur, I shall insert the advertisement
for the sale of Sir Peter Lely's collection of works
of art, which I copied from the London Gazette of
February 16, 1687 :

' Upon Mod day, in Easter-week, will be exposed by Public Auction
a most curious and valuable collection of Drawings and Prints, made
with great expense and care by Sir Peter Lely, Painter to his Majesty.
The Drawings are all of the most eminent Masters of Italy, being

198 NOLLEKENS AND HIS TIMES

originals and most curiously preserved. The Prints are all the works
of Mark Antoine, after Raphael, and the other best Italian Masters,
and of the best impressions and proof prints in good condition and
curiously preserved, some are double and treble.

' The Sale will be at the house in Covent Garden, where Sir Peter
Lely lived.' 1

Covent Garden even so late as Pope's time
retained its fashion, as may be seen by the following
extract from the Morning Advertiser for March 6,
1730:

s

' The Lady Wortley Montague, who has been greatly indisposed at
her house in Covent Garden for some time, is now perfectly recovered,
and takes the benefit of the air in Hyde Park every morning, by
advice of her physicians.'

The tracing out and examining the peculiar
manners and customs of the inhabitants and visitors
of the parish of St. Paul, Covent Garden, is a source
of knowledge of considerable importance to every
class of historian, both on account of the immense
number of persons of the highest rank and title,
as well as artists of the very first eminence, who at
one time rendered it the most, and, indeed, the only,
fashionable part of the town ; and also from the
immense concourse of wits, literary characters, and
other men of genius, who frequented the various
and numerous coffee-houses, wine and cider cellars,
jelly-shops, etc., within its boundaries, the list of
whom particularly includes the eminent names of
Butler, Addison, Sir Kichard Steele, Otway, Dryden,
Pope, Warburton, Cibber, Fielding, Churchill,
Bolingbroke, and Dr. Samuel Johnson ; Kich,

1 It was not the custom formerly to mention the name of the
auctioneer in advertisements of sales. Smith.

INHABITANTS OF COVENT GARDEN 199

Woodward, Booth, Wilkes, Garrick, and Macklin ;
Kitty Clive, Peg Woffington, Mrs. Pritchard, the
Duchess of Bolton, Lady Derby, Lady Thurlow,
and the present Duchess of St. Albans ; Sir Peter
Lely, Sir Godfrey Kneller, and Sir James Thorn-
hill ; Vandevelde, Zincke, Lambert, Hay man,
Hogarth, Wilson, Dance, Meyer, etc.

The diversified pleasure of procuring this infor-
mation from numerous authentic sources, both
written and related, together with several curious
events which have fallen under my own observation,
has occupied many years of my early life ; and I
now find myself in possession of a truly interesting
mass of intelligence, sufficiently extensive for a
publication of two volumes, containing some curious
collections towards the history of that most fre-
quented of parishes, which I hope, w r ith the blessing
of health and continuance of memory (for the
possession of which organ the friendly Dr. Spurz-
heim has given me some credit), to live to see
published.

But at present I must not lose sight of Mr.
Nollekens. He for many years made one at the
table of what was at this time called the Royal
Academy Club ; and so strongly was he bent upon
saving all he could privately conceal, that he did
not mind paying two guineas a year for his ad-
mission-ticket in order to indulge himself with a
few nutmegs, which he contrived to pocket
privately ; for as red-wine negus was the principal
beverage, nutmegs were used. Now, it generally
happened, if another bowl was wanted, that the

200 NOLLEKENS AND HIS TIMES

nutmegs were missing. Nollekens, who had fre-
quently been seen to pocket them, was one day
requested by Rossi, the sculptor, to see if they had
not fallen under the table ; upon which Nollekens
actually went crawling beneath upon his hands and
knees pretending to look for them, though at that
very time they were in his waistcoat-pocket. He
was so old a stager at this monopoly of nutmegs
that he would sometimes engage the maker of the
negus in conversation, looking at him full in the
face, whilst he slyly and unobserved, as he thought,
conveyed away the spice ; like the fellow who is
stealing the bank-note from the blind man in that
admirable print of c The Royal Cock-pit,' by
Hogarth.

I believe it is generally considered that those who
are miserlv in their own houses, almost to a state of
starvation, when they visit their friends or dine in
public, but particularly when they are travelling,
and know that they will be called upon with a pretty
long bill, are accustomed to lay in what they call a
good stock of everything, or of all the good things
the landlord thinks proper to spread before them.
This was certainly the case with Nollekens when
he visited Harrogate in order to take the water
for his diseased mouth. He informed his wife that
he took three half -pints of water at a time, and as
he knew the bills would be pretty large at the inn,
he was determined to indulge in the good things of
this world ; so that one day he managed to get
through c a nice roast chicken, with two nice tarts
and some nice jellies.' Another day he took nearly

MISS COLEMAN, THE MODEL 201

two pounds of venison, the fat of which was at
least ' two inches thick ' ; at breakfast he always
managed two muffins, and got through a plate of
toast, and he took good care to put a French roll in
his pocket, for fear he should find himself hungry
when he was walking on the common by himself.

Our sculptor would sometimes amuse himself on
a summer's evening by standing with his arms
behind him at the yard-gate, which opened into
Titchfield Street. During one of these indulgences,
as a lady w r as passing, most elegantly dressed,
attended by a strapping footman in silver-laced
livery, with a tall gilt-headed cane, she nodded to
him, and smilingly asked him if he did not know
her. On his reply that he did not recollect her,
' What, sir !' exclaimed she, c do you forget Miss
Coleman, who brought a letter to you from Charles
Townley to show legs with your Venus ! Why, I
have been with you twenty times in that little room
to stand for your Venus !' ' Oh, lauk-a-daisy, so
you have !' answered Nollekens. ' Why, what a
fine woman you're grown ! Come, walk in, and I'll
show you your figure ; I have done it in marble.'

After desiring the man to stop at the gate, she
went in with him ; and upon seeing Mrs. Nollekens
at the parlour-window, who was pretending to talk
to and feed her sister's bullfinch, but who had been
informed by the vigilant and suspicious Bronze of
what had been going on at the gate, she went up to

her, and said : ' Madam, I have to thank '

Mrs. Nollekens then elevated herself on her toes,
and with a lisping palpitation began to address the

202 NOLLEKENS AND HIS TIMES

lady. 'Oh dear!' observed Miss Coleman, 'and
you don't know me ? You have given me many a
basin of broth in the depth of winter when I used
to stand for Venus.' Mrs. Nollekens, not knowing
what to think of Joseph, shook her head at him as
she slammed the window, at the same time ex-
claiming : 'Oh fie, Mr. Nollekens, fie, fie!' Bronze
assured me that when her master went into the
front-parlour he had a pretty warm reception.
' What!' said her mistress, ' to know such wretches
after you have done with them in your studio !'
The truth is that Mrs. Nollekens certainly did
contrive to get a little broth ready for the models,
such as it was, and she likewise condescended to
take it into the room herself ; and this, I am sorry
to say, whatever her motives or other charitable
intentions might have been, is the only thing I can
relate of her that bears the semblance of kindness.

It is probable that Mrs. Nollekens never ex-
perienced that inexpressible delight which diffuses
itself through the benevolent heart when alleviating
the wants of others. Indeed, she would often
remain at the window looking over the blind, and
tantalizing the piteous supplicants who every
moment expected relief from her hand ; and she
would indulge in this practice that passers-by
might suppose the inhabitants of the mansion to be
charitably inclined. One winter morning, when
the weather was so severe that the blackbirds fell
from the branches, two miserable men, almost
dying for want of nourishment, implored her
charitable aid ; but little did the unhappy men-

PARSIMONY OF MRS. NOLLEKENS 203

dicants suppose that the only heart which sym-
pathized in their afflictions was that of Betty, in
the kitchen, who silently crept upstairs and cheer-
fully gave them her mite.

At this delicate rebuke Mrs. Nollekens hastily
opened the parlour-door, and vociferated : ' Betty,
Betty, there is a bone below with little or no meat
on it ; give it the poor creatures !' upon which the
one who had hitherto spoken, steadfastly looking in
the face of his pale partner in distress, repeated :
c Bill, we are to have a bone with little or no meat
on it.' When they were gone, the liberal-hearted
Betty was seriously rated by her mistress, who was
quite certain she would come to want. ' What
good will your wages do you, child, if you give
alms so often to such people ? Dr. Johnson has
done all our servants more injury by that constant
practice of his of giving charity, as it is called, than
he is aware of, and I shall take an opportunity of
telling him so when I next see him at Sir John
Hawkins' ; and T know Sir John and all his family
will be on my side, for they are far from being
extravagant people.'

My worthy friend, the late Dr. Hill, assured me
that a gentleman of the faculty, who lectured upon
medical electricity, and gave advice gratis to the
poor twice a week at his house in Bond Street, was
visited by a woman dressed shabbily -genteel, who
received the shock, until one of the patients in-
formed the doctor that she was no less a person
than Mrs. Nollekens, the wife of the famous
sculptor. He was therefore determined to expose

204 NOLLEKENS AND HIS TIMES

her the next day by getting all the poor into the
room before she was admitted ; and what her shock
was may easily be conceived, if we allow her to
have possessed common feeling.

When she was seated in the electrical chair in
the centre of the room, the doctor stood before her,
and, making her a profound bow, addressed her as
Mrs. Nollekens. ' I wonder, madam,' said he, ' that
a lady of your fortune, and the wife of a Koyal
Academician, could think of passing yourself off as
a pauper you, who ought to enable me to relieve
these poor people. You are welcome, madam, to
the assistance which I have given you ; but I hope
and trust that you will now distribute the amount
of my fees from persons in your station to your
distressed fellow- creatures around you in this room.'
Mrs. Nollekens, after this electrifying shock, dis-
tributed the contents of her purse, which, un-
fortunately, on this occasion amounted only to a
few shillings, though she left the room with a
promise to send more. After this reproof, how-
ever, she was noticed to dress a little better, and to
walk with her high-caned parasol as usual.

Mrs. Nollekens was not very fond of Miss
Hawkins ; she said that she was always giving her
tongue liberties when speaking of Dr. Johnson,
and whenever Mr. Boswell's name was mentioned
she would throw herself into such a rage, because
that gentleman had asserted that Sir John Hawkins,
her father, was the son of a carpenter.

Poor Mrs. Nollekens ! what would she have said
had she lived to have seen the three volumes of

M/SS HA WKINS? GOSSIP 205

1 Anecdotes,' in one of which Miss Hawkins says :
1 Now, as to the carpenter's son, I am almost
shocked at using lightly a term that exists in Holy
Writ'? But in my humble opinion, as she was not
unconscious of overstepping sacred bounds, she
ought to have been quite shocked for even glancing
at Holy Writ upon such an occasion. There would
have been an appearance of good sense in Miss
Hawkins had she adopted the ingenuous manner in
which Mr. Gifford, in his account of himself, speaks
of his own origin prefixed to his translation of
Juvenal, since he there tells us that he was
apprenticed to a shoemaker. Again, too, she would
also have done well had she recollected that Dr.
Hutton had been a common workman in a coal-
mine in the North of England ; and, indeed, there
are innumerable instances of other great and good
men who have arisen from the most humble calling
to the pinnacle of fame and honour. That highly -
respected character, the late Mr. Deputy Nichols,
one of the editors of the Gentleman s Magazine,
informed me that Cave, the original Mr. Urban,
often when he made a visit desired the servant to
tell his master that ' The cobbler's son had called.'
Samuel Richardson, the author of ' Clarissa,' had no
such feelings of false pride, since he scrupled not
himself to say, ' My father's business was that of a
joiner.'

As Miss Hawkins did not think proper to exempt
me from Mr. Sherwin's 1 c pupils in punch,' and as
I have no wish to leave the world and my family

1 John Keyse Sherwin, the engraver. He died in 1790. Ed.

206 NOLLEKENS AND HIS TIMES

with the slander of drunkenness attached to my
memory, when at no period of my life have I
merited that stigma, I shall endeavour to show how
little this lady, who is so fond of running a tilt at
others, is to be believed in some of her assertions.
At page 32, in the second volume of her Memoirs,
she states, when speaking of Sherwin's eccentricities
and follies (and well knowing that I was his pupil
at that time), that 'he fired pistols out of his
window half the night, and half drowned his pupils ;
for, sad to say, he had pupils in punch.'

Miss Hawkins states on the same page that
8 Sherwin expired, forlorn and comfortless, in a
poor apartment of a public inn in Oxford Street ;'
whereas the fact is that Sherwin died in the house
of the late Mr. Kobert Wilkinson, the print-seller,
in Cornhill, who kindly attended him, afforded him
every comfort, and paid respect to his remains ;
his body having been conveyed to Hampstead, and
buried in a respectable manner in the churchyard,
near the north-east corner of the front entrance, in
the very grave where his brother George had been
interred. Miss Hawkins states that her mother's
portrait was painted ; by Prince Hoare of Bath ' ;
she should have said William Hoare, 1 Esq., E.A.,
Prince Hoare's father. Miss Hawkins, who so
often considers herself obliged to her brother for a
good thing, allowed the following to be printed in
page 218 of the first volume of her Memoirs.

1 William Hoare, a Suffolk man, born in 1706, became a fashionable
portrait-painter at Bath, where he died in 1792. Ed.

THE HA WKINSES 207

(H. H. loquitur.)

Speaking of Dr. Johnson, H. H. says : * Calling
upon him shortly after the death of Lord Mansfield,
and mentioning the event, he answered, " Ah, sir,
there was little learning and less virtue !"

Now, unfortunately for Miss Hawkins and her
brother H. H., this fabricated invective can never
stand, for that highly respected and learned judge,
Lord Mansfield, died on Wednesday, March 20,
1794, ten years after the death of Dr. Johnson,
with whom H. H. so roundly declares he conversed
upon his lordship's death. As Miss Hawkins
states in a note at the foot of page 227 of the first
volume of her Memoirs, that ' violation of truth
cannot be treated too harshly,' I trust that I shall
stand pardoned for what I am doing, especially as
in the first volume, page 150, she says, 'Brought
up, as my brothers and myself were, in strict regard
to truth, and in abhorrence of all insincerity, even
that of fashion.'

I think in charity I ought to plead Miss Hawkins'
chronological ignorance, or she never would have
acknowledged that she applied to her brother, as
she does in page 258 of the first volume of her
Memoirs, for more of his anecdotes of Lord Mans-
field and Dr. Johnson. In Dr. Birch's 'Life of
Lord Bacon,' it is said of a biographer that ' he is
fairly to record the faults as well as the good
qualities, the failings as well as the perfections, of
the dead ;' but here the assertion begins with the
emphatic word fairly. All I have to add to these

208 NOLLEKENS AND HIS TIMES

remarks is that, whether Miss Hawkins' grand-
father or her father had been a carpenter or not
since she has asserted her descent from Sir John
Hawkins, who fought against the Spanish Armada
her time would have been innocently employed if
she had made out and favoured the public with her
own pedigree, and proved that descent.

[ 29 ]

CHAPTER IX.

Mr. Nollekens' favourite amusements Children's headcloths and go-
carts Bethlehem Hospital and Cibber's figures Anecdotes of Dr.
Wolcot and Mr. Nollekens, Boswell, H. Tresham, R.A., and Fuseli
Eccentricities of Lord Coleraine Mr. Nollekens and his barber-
Anecdotes of the Rev. John Wesley Mr. Nollekens' restoration of
antiques at Rome Drawings at Rome by Mosman Tailors
Family quarrels Mr. Nollekens' manoeuvres for importing a
picture Coarseness of his manners Mr. Charles Townley and
the Abbe Devay Portrait, house, and antique marbles of Mr.
Townley described The Royal Cockpit Immorality of Hogarth.

During my long intimacy with Mr. Nollekens, I
never once heard him mention the name of the
sweetest bard that ever sang, from whose luxuriant
garden most artists have gathered their choicest
flowers. To the beauties of the immortal Shake-
speare he was absolutely insensible, nor did he ever
visit the theatre when his plays were performed,
though he was actively alive to a pantomime, and
frequently spake of the capital and curious tricks
in Harlequin Sorcerer. He also recollected with
pleasure Mr. Kich's wonderful and singular power
of scratching his ear with his foot like a dog ; and
the street-exhibition of Punch and his wife delighted
him beyond expression. 1

1 He would probably have equally enjoyed the sight of the
Traveller Twiss's large poodle dog walking in the open streets, with

14

NOLLEKENS AND HIS TIMES

In this gratification, however, our sculptor did
not stand alone, for I have frequently seen, when I
have stood in the crowd, wise men laugh at the
mere squeaking of Punch, and have heard them
speak of his cunning pranks with the highest
ecstasy. Indeed, I once saw two brothers of the
long robe involuntarily stop and heartily enjoy the
dialogue of that merry little fellow with Jack Ketch,
who was about to hang Punch for the murder of his
wife and his innocent babe. These brothers -in-law
discovered, however, before long that they had not
only lost their handkerchiefs when they had been
elbowing the motley group for the best places, but
that they had deprived a baker, to whom they
had too closely attached themselves, of his flowery
influence.

Nollekens, when noticing nursery-maids with
little children, would always make most anxious
inquiries as to the cutting of the child's teeth ; and
so addicted was he to accosting strangers in the
streets, that I remember once his stopping to
express his sense of the kindness of a mother who
had made a pudding for her child's head, by saying,
' Ay, now, what's your name ?' c Rap worth, sir.'

an immense pair of spectacles upon his nose, cut out in pasteboard,
between his master and that admirable organist, Samuel Wesley,
when they have been perambulating Camden Town in close conversa-
tion ; and have beheld the scene with as much pleasure as those who
witnessed the attentive gravity of the traveller's dog, with his long
shaggy hair hanging over his head, and a sagacity of look as if he was
to decide the not unfrequently knotty points upon which these
celebrated originals frequently conversed during their pedestrian
relaxations. Smith.

PUDDINGS 2ii

' Well, Mrs. Eapworth, you have done right ; I
wore a pudding when I was a little boy, and all
my mother's children wore puddings.' 1 As to the
antiquity of this cap, which is now seldom seen,
and I believe totally unknown in the nurseries of
the great, I can safely observe that the child of
the great painter Sir Peter Paul Rubens wore one ;
as those mothers who are fond of showing their
good sense by taking care of their children may
see in that truly beautiful mezzotinto engraving by
McArdell, of Rubens, his wife and child walking in
a garden. 2

By those readers who are fond of old household
furniture, and also recollect the sensible uses of
several articles of that denomination, many of
which are now nearly thrown aside, the following
notice of the go-cart may not be deemed irrelevant
to the subject of this page. It was unquestionably
one of the safest and most useful of all the comforts
of the nursery and the infantile playground ; and
elderly persons will recollect that it was so con-
structed that it safely enclosed and supported the
child in an upright position, a little below its arms,
which were allowed to be entirely free above it.
As this machine moved upon castors, the child was

1 This pudding consisted of a broad black silk band, padded with
wadding, which went round the middle of the head, joined to two
pieces of riband crossing on the top of the head and then tied under
the chin, so that by this most excellent contrivance children's heads
were often preserved uninjured when they fell. Smith.

2 The painting from which this engraving was made is now at
Blenheim. Smith. James McArdell, the mezzotint engraver (1710-
1765). Ed.

212 NOLLE KENS AND HIS TIMES

enabled with ease to go forward, whilst in conse-
quence of its extending so widely at the feet, there
was no danger whatever of its overturning ; and I
fully expect, as most things come round again in
their use, that the affectionate and considerate
mother will take this most valuable invention again
into favour.

The go-cart is supposed to be of considerable
antiquity, since a figure of it appears upon a sarco-
phagus of a child, engraven in Montfaucon, 1 and it
was also much used in Germany and Holland before
it was known in England. In the British Museum,
among the early German masters of the fifteenth
century, there is a rare folio sheet woodcut, repre-
senting a man nearly bent double by age, with a
long flowing beard, placed in a square go-cart,
supported by six legs, tastefully and curiously
carved with foliage. Upon a shelf at the top of
the go-cart, which projects in front of him, is
placed an hour-glass surmounted by a human
skull ; but these he does not appear to notice, as
his eye is looking straight forward and considerably
above them. He is seemingly obeying the allure-
ments of a boy who is riding on a stick, with a
horse's head at the top. On one side, a little in
advance of him and immediately before him, is a
grave, which, if we may judge by the spade which
is left on the ground, has been recently dug pur-
posely for his reception. Behind him is another

1 'Supplement au Livre l'Antiquite Expliquee,' vol. v., Paris,
1724, fol., book v., ch. i., sec. ii., pp. 105, 106, plates xlii., xliii.
Smith.

GO-CARTS 213

child pushing on the go-cart, seemingly with little
exertion ; and in the distance there is a buck,
which appears to be bounding back again after he
had accompanied this aged man to the brink of
eternity, into which the infant is so easily pushing
him. 1

In Quarles's c Emblems ' there is also a go-cart
introduced ; and Eembrandt has etched one, where
a nurse or mother is inviting the child who is
in it to walk to her. This print is numbered 186 in
Daulby's ' Catalogue of Kembrandt's Etchings,' and
is there called ' The Go-cart.' When I was a boy
the go-cart was common in every toy-shop in
London ; but it was to be found in the greatest
abundance in the once far-famed turner's shops in
Spinning-wheel Alley, Moorfields, a narrow passage
leading from those fields to the spot upon which the
original Bethlehem Hospital stood in Bishopsgate
Street, and upon which site numerous houses were
erected, and formerly called Old Bethlehem. In
1825-26, however, both Spinning-wheel Alley
and Old Bethlehem were considerably altered and
widened, and subsequently named Liverpool Street.

Upon the establishment of the late Bethlehem
Hospital, and, indeed, down to the time of King
Charles II., the men and women were crowded
together in one ward. I have seen, by favour of

1 A design, almost similar, has been attributed to Michael Angelo,
of which there are two different prints, one being without any
etigraver's name or year of publication, though the other is dated
1538, and was published by Antonio Salamanca. Mr. Duppa, in his
'Life of Michael Angelo Buonarroti,' London, 1806, has given an out-
line copy of this subject. Smith.

214 NOLLEKENS AND HIS TIMES

Dr. Haslam, several of the early manuscript
account-books of this hospital, in one of which
there was the following entry : ' This clay the
neighbouring flax-dressers were called in, who gave
the unruly patients a good dressing.' Whenever
Nollekens heard the figures of Raving and Melan-
choly madness mentioned, which were carved by
Gabriel Cibber 1 for the piers of the gates of Bethle-
hem Hospital, built in Moorfields, he never ex-
pressed himself pleased with them. This was not
the case with Roubiliac, the sculptor, who never
left the city, when he went there to receive money,
without going round, sometimes considerably out of
his way, to admire them.

It is said that Cibber carved these figures, which
.are now preserved in the hall of the new hospital
in St. George's Fields, at once from the block,
without any previous drawing or model whatever.
An instance of similar talent for extemporary pro-
ductions I have heard mentioned by Mr. Joseph
Cauldfield, a music-engraver, and a most excellent
teacher of the pianoforte, who has declared that
the celebrated Charles Dibdin assured him that he
had frequently composed a song, with all its musical
accompaniments, and played it in public on the
evening of the same day entirely by memory, with-
out the slightest written memoranda.

Those who recollect the figure of Dr. Wolcot in
his robust, upright state, and the diminutive appear -

1 Caius Gabriel Cibber, a Danish sculptor, settled in England. He
was Carver to the Closet to William III., and the father of Colley
Cibber, the playwright. He died in 1700. Ed.

PETER PINDAR 215

ance of Mr. Nollekens, can readily picture to them-
selves their extreme contrast, when the former
accosted the latter one evening at his gate in
Titchfield Street nearly in the following manner :
4 Why, Nollekens, you never speak to me now.
Pray, what is the reason ?' Nollekens : ' Why, you
have published such lies of the King, and had the
impudence to send them to me ; but Mrs. Nollekens
burnt them, and I desire you'll send no more. The
Royal Family are very good to me, and are great
friends to all the artists, and I don't like to hear
anybody say anything against them.' Upon which
the Doctor put his cane upon the sculptor's
shoulder, and exclaimed : ' Well said, little Nolly !
I like the man who sticks to his friend. You shall
make a bust of me for that.' c I'll see you d d
first !' answered Nollekens ; ' and I can tell you this
besides no man in the Royal Academy but Opie
would have painted your picture ; and you richly
deserved the broken head you got from Grifford in
Wright's shop. Mr. Cook, of Bedford Square,
showed me his handkerchief dipped in your blood ;
and so now you know my mind. Come in, my
Cerberus, come in.' His dog then followed him in,
and he left the Doctor at the gate, which he barred
up for the night.

Nollekens, who always expressed the highest
pleasure when seeing French and Italian women
dance, congratulated himself upon the burning
down of the opera-house in the Haymarket by
observing : ' Now the managers have hired the
Pantheon in Oxford Street, I shall not have so far

216 NOLLEKENS AND HIS TIMES

to go in the rain !' When he first was a frequenter
of the opera, which he never missed when c bones '
of admission were sent to him, gentlemen were
obliged to go in swords and bags in full-dress,
which custom, however, was dropped on the
removal to the Pantheon ; so that Nollekens was
more at home, as he was now and then seen to take
out a worsted stocking and tie it round his neck
whenever he had a sore throat, to which he was
often subject.

James Boswell, the faithful biographer of Dr.
Johnson, meeting him in the pit of the Pantheon,
loudly exclaimed : ' Why, Nollekens, how dirty you
go now! I recollect when you were the gayest
dressed of any in the house.' To whom Nollekens
made, for once in his life, the retort courteous of,
c That's more than I could ever say of you.'
Boswell certainly looked very badly when dressed,
for, as he seldom washed himself, his clean ruffles
served as a striking contrast to his dirty flesh.

Tresham, 1 the Koyal Academician, who had been
employed to decorate the front of the stage at the
Pantheon, filled the tympanum with a profusion of
figures displaying the sciences, of which perform-
ance he was not a little proud. Having taken his
seat in the front to see the effect of his pencil, on
looking behind him he found his nearest companion
was Puseli, to whom he addressed himself with :
Well, Mr. Fuseli, how do you like my pedimental

1 Henry Tresham (1749 V-1814), an Irish historical painter, was
elected A.R.A. in 1791, and R.A. in 1799. He was professor of
painting from 1807 to 1809. Ed.

ECCENTRICS 217

colouring ?' to which he received no answer ; but at
last, after putting several other questions with as
little success, he roused him by the interrogative
of : ' How do you like the drawing of my figures ?'
To which Fuseli, who heard the bell ring, observed :
' The drawing bespeaks something clever I mean
the drawing of the curtain,' which the mechanists
were just at that moment engaged in raising.
Fuseli, however, soon alleviated the embarrassment
of his brother R.A. by remarking that the conceited
scene-painter, Mr. Capon, 1 to whom Sheridan had
given the nickname of ' Pompous Billy,' had ' piled
up his lump of rocks as regularly on the side-
scenes as a baker would his quartern loaves upon
the shelves behind his counter to cool.'

I believe every age produces at least one eccentric
in every city, town, and village. Be this as it may,
go where you w T ill, you will find some half-witted
fellow under the nickname either of Dolly, Silly
Billy, or Foolish Sam, who is generally the butt
and sport of his neighbours, and from whom,
simple as he may sometimes be, a sensible answer
is expected to an unthinking question : like the
common children, who will, to our annoyance,
inquire of our neighbour's parrot what it is o'clock.
In some such light Nollekens was often held even
by his brother artists ; and I once heard Fuseli cry
out, when on the opposite side of the street :
c Nollekens, Nollekens ! why do you walk in the
sun ? If you have no love for your few brains,
you should not melt your coat-buttons.'

1 William Capon of Norwich (1757-1827). Ed.

218 NOLLE KENS AND HIS TIMES

The eccentric character is, however, sure to be
found in London, where there are several curious
varieties of this class of persons to be met with.
In our walks, perchance, we may meet a man who
always casts his eyes towards the ground, as if he
were ashamed of looking anyone in the face, and
who pretends when accosted to be near-sighted, so
that he does not know even the friend that had
served him. Indeed, he draws his hat across his
forehead to act as an eyeshade, so that his sallow
visage cannot immediately be recognised, which
makes him look as if he had done something
wrong, whilst his coat is according to the true
Addison cut, w T ith square pockets, large enough to
carry the folio 4 Ship of Fools. 5 Nollekens, though
simple, was entirely free from any artful singularity
of this kind, and he walked as if he meant to give
everyone he met the good-morrow ; and if he had
a fault in his latter perambulations, it w T as that of
exposing himself to the cunningly inclined.

No man was more gazed at than the late Lord
Coleraine. 1 That eccentric and remarkable char-
acter, who lived near the New Queen's Head and
Artichoke, in Marylebone Fields, never met
Nollekens without saluting him with, ' Well, Nolly,
my old boy, how goes it ? You never sent me the
bust of the Prince.' To which Nollekens replied,
4 You know you said you would call for it one of

1 Colonel George Hanger. He became fourth Baron Coleraine in
1810, but refused to take the title. His eccentric manners were too
coarse even for the Prince Kegent. He had spent many years in
America, and in 1801 he made a curiously accurate prophecy of the
Civil War in the United States. He died in 1824. Ed.

LORD COLE R A IN E 219

these days, and give me the money, and take it
away in a hackney-coach.' I remember seeing his
lordship after he had purchased a book, entitled
' The American Buccaneers,' sit down close by the
shop from which he had bought it, in the open
street in St. Giles's, to read it. I also once heard
Lord Coleraine, as I was passing the wall at the
end of Portland Eoad, when an old apple-woman,
with whom his lordship held frequent conversations,
was packing up her fruit, ask her the following
question : ' What are you about, mother ?' c Why,
my lord, I am going home to my tea. If your
lordship wants any information, I shall come again
presently.' ' Oh, don't balk trade ! Leave your
things on the table as they are ; I will mind shop
till you come back ;' so saying, he seated himself in
the old woman's wooden chair, in which he had
often sat before whilst chatting Avith her. Being
determined to witness the result, after strolling
about till the return of the old lady, I heard his
lordship declare the amount of his receipts by
saying : ' Well, mother, I have taken threepence
halfpenny for you. Did your daughter Nancy
drink tea with you ?'

Mr. Nollekens, on entering his barber's shop, was
always glad to find another shavee under the suds,
as it afforded him an opportunity of looking at his
favourite paper, the Daily Advertiser. When his
turn arrived, and he was seated for the operation,
he placed one of Mrs. Nollekens' curling-papers,
which he had untwisted for the purpose, upon his
right shoulder, upon which the barber wiped his

220 NOLLEKENS AND HIS TIMES

razor. Nollekens cried out, c Shave close, Hancock,
for I was obliged to come twice last week, you
used so blunt a razor.' l Lord, sir,' answered the
poor barber, ' you don't care how I wear my razors
out by sharpening them.' Mr. Nollekens, who had
been under his hand for upwards of twenty years,
was so correct an observer of its application that
he generally pronounced at the last flourish, ' That
will do ;' and before the shaver could take off the
cloth, he dexterously drew down the paper, folded
it up, and carried it home in his hand, for the
purpose of using it the next morning when he
washed himself.

The following is a verse of a droll song which
Xollekens used to sing when I was a boy, and with
which he was always highly delighted.

' So a rat by degrees
Fed a kitten with cheese,

Till kitten grew up to a cat ;
When the cheese was all spent,
Nature follow'd its bent,

And puss quickly ate up the rat.'

He observed that his mother, who was fond of
curious sights, once took him to see c Adams'
Rarities ' at the sign of the Royal Swan, in
Kingsland Road, where he saw a pillory for a rat.

Nollekens' manners and sentiments were such, if
we may with the least degree of propriety be
permitted to denominate his deportment mannerly,
that though he would often hold long, and some-
times entertaining, conversations with the com-
monest people with the utmost good-nature, he

JOHN WESLEY 221

would never suffer himself to be persuaded to
model a bust of any of the sectarians in religion.
The dignified clergy, and all persons holding high
offices in the affairs of Government, were the
characters he delighted to model. I recollect that
several of the friends of John Wesley often applied
to him for a portrait of their pastor ; but he never
would listen to their importunities, though they
repeatedly declared to him that he was one of the
worthiest members of any society existing. I have
been assured that Wesley never wished to make
money by preaching, unless it were to enable him
to extend his acts of charity to the poor, in proof
of which I beg leave to repeat the following
anecdote nearly, I believe, as I heard it from his
nephew, Mr. Samuel Wesley.

An order was made in the House of Lords in
May, 1776, for the Commissioners of his Majesty's
Excise to write circular letters to all persons who
they had reason to suspect had plate, and also to
those who had not regularly paid the duty on the
same. In consequence of this order, the Accountant-
general for Household Plate sent to the Rev.
John Wesley a copy of it, and the following was
the answer returned to him :

4 Sir,

' I have two silver teaspoons in London, and two at Bristol.
This is all the plate which I have at present ; and I shall not buy any
more while so many around me want bread. I am, sir,

1 Your humble servant,

'John Wesley.'

When the death of Deare, the sculptor, was
communicated to Nollekens, he observed : ' He's

222 NOLLE KENS AND HIS TIMES

dead, is he ? That palavering fellow, Fagan, 1
promised me some of his drawings, but I never had
any. I have got two of his four basso-relievos of
the Seasons, and the two oval basso-relievos of
Cupid and Psyche. They are very clever, I assure
you ; but he was a very upstart fellow, or he ought
to have made money by sending over some antiques
from Rome. I told him I'd sell 'em for him, and
so might many of 'em ; but the sculptors nowadays
never care for bringing home anything. They're
all so stupid and conceited of their own abilities.
Why, do you know, I got all the first, and the
best of my money, by putting antiques together ?
Hamilton, and I, and Jenkins generally used to go
shares in what we bought ; and as I had to match
the pieces as well as I could, and clean 'em, I had
the best part of the profits. Gavin Hamilton was
a good fellow ; but as for Jenkins, he followed the
trade of supplying the foreign visitors with intaglios
and cameos made by his own people, that he kept
in a part of the ruins of the Colosseum, fitted up for
'em to work in slyly by themselves. I saw 'em at
work, though ; and Jenkins gave a whole handful
of 'em to me to say nothing about the matter to
anybody else but myself. Bless your heart! he
sold 'em as fast as they made 'em. Jenkins had a
great many pictures by many of the Old Masters.
Mosman, the German, made drawings of 'em in
black chalk for Lord Exeter, who was his en-
courager for many years.'

The cause of Mosman being thus employed was

1 Robert Fagan, an art-dealer, who was in Rome for the purpose of
collecting old pictures from 1794 to 1798. Ed.

MOSMAN AND LORD EXETER 223

related by his patron, the late Earl of Exeter,
nearly to the following effect : His lordship, when
at Rome, having entered a church, was surprised
by seeing a common soldier making a most elaborate
drawing from one of the altar-pieces. He com-
plimented him upon his talent, and at the same
time expressed his astonishment in seeing a man of
his extraordinary powers in the dress of a common
soldier. ' Sir,' said the draughtsman, ' you are
welcome to look at my drawing ; but you have no
right to remind me of my condition.' Lord Exeter,
whose dress did not upon every occasion bespeak
his rank, assured him of his power to serve him if
he stood in need of a friend ; and when Mosman
found by whom he had been questioned, he stated
in a few words that for eighteen years he had been
tormented by a vixen of a wife, till at last he left
her in full possession of all his household property,
pictures, drawings, etc., and enlisted into a foreign
regiment as a common man that his officer, who
had heard his story, was very kind to him, and gave
him leave to make the drawing he was then engaged
upon. Lord Exeter purchased his discharge, and
employed him to make drawings of various fine
pictures, of which at that time there were no
engravings. These drawings now fill four im-
mensely large volumes, and were given by his
lordship to the British Museum ; and at the com-
mencement of the first of these splendid books is
the following note :

' Mr. Nollekens, Statuary, in Mortimer-street, London, assured me
that he was at Rome when the drawings in this book were made by

224 NOLLEKENS AND HIS TIMES

one Mosman, a German, 1 who was recommended to Brownlow, Earl
of Exeter ; and he worked at them several years at five shillings
a-day. Afterwards Lord Exeter gave him half-a-guinea. Lord Exeter
told Mr. Nollekens the book cost him 2,000/. Mosman was a pupil
of Mengs.

( Fra s . Annesley.'

One day, what some persons would call ' an old-
fashioned boy ' brought Mr. Nollekens home a pair
of inexpressibles, that his master, a botching tailor,
who worked in an opposite stall, had seated for
him. Nollekens, after paying him the eighteen-
pence, which was the sum agreed upon for the
job, asked the boy how old he was. ' Sixteen,'
answered he. ' Why, you're rather short of your
age,' rejoined the sculptor ; upon which the boy
put the same question to the master of the small-
clothes, who having answered, 'Near sixty' 'Why,
you're very short for your age, I am sure!' retorted
the son of Accutus. 2

I shall now give my reader a sketch of one of the
family disputes in which Mr. and Mrs. Nollekens
sometimes freely indulged.

One day Bronze heard a more violent disputation

1 It appears on the manuscript title-page of the first volume of these
drawings that Joseph was considered as Mosman's Christian name ;
but in numerous, and indeed all, instances where the artist has written
his own name upon the drawings, he signs Nicholas Mosman. The
same title-page states that he was a native of Rous, in Lorraine, and
died August 14, 1787, aged fifty-eight years two months and eleven
days. Smith.

2 The great warrior, John Accutus, was originally a tailor. Those
invaluable historians of everlasting reference, John Stow and John
Speed, were also tailors ; and I could introduce the names of many
other worthy men now living, of the highest talents, who have
exchanged the needle, thimble, scissors, and shopboard for poetry and
painting. Smith.

FAMILY SQUABBLES 225

than usual between her master and mistress :
4 What !' cried he, ' what ! madam, you're at your
old tricks again ? Twopence indeed ! I say I paid
you the twopence for the letter, and I'll take my
'davy of it !' ' Very well, sir, very well ; it's
mighty well, perfectly correct, and perfectly just,
Mr. Positive, I dare say,' retorted Mrs. Nollekens ;
4 you shall see, sir, from this very moment I will
never pay for a letter of yours again !' Then, after
a pause, her bit of slate was thrown on the floor,
and the lady in a whining tone, which convinced
Bronze she was wound up to the highest pitch,
cried with a half-stifled sob, ' You know you
know you vile little thing ! you paid me only
two shillings and sevenpence on last Thursday's
account.' 1 1 tell you this, and now mind what I
say,' replied Nollekens, ' that if it was so, it's your
own fault, for I never will pay a farthing more
when you have once smeared the slate, that I tell
you.' A knock at the door induced Bronze to go
in, and say, l Hush ! hush ! there's a knock at the
street-door.' ' I don't care,' exclaimed the sculptor,
c she shan't colly-wabble me. Go and see who it
is.' ' Want any fish to-day ?' asked an Irish fish-
woman ; * it's Friday, bless ye !' 'I don't care for
Friday. 1 I've had dinner enough, quite enough,'

1 Whatever a man's religion may be, some praise is due to him for
his attention to the tenets of that faith. I fear Nollekens was not
entitled to much credit for observances to what he called his Mother
Church, for I have often heard him declare that the patronage of his
friend Cardinal Albani, a great lover of sculpture, secured him from
the observations of many persons, as to his neglect of religious duties.
Smith.

15

226 NOLLEKENS AND HIS TIMES

answered JNollekens, who walked out of the room
with only one slipper on. 'Betty ! Betty ! shut
the door ; it is very odd that people will not take
an answer,' rejoined Mrs. Nollekens.

At three o'clock, however, some chops were pro-
duced, and the half- sullen pair began both to be
sorry for their little heat ; but after the table-cloth
was removed, upon Bronze going into the parlour
with coals, she found them so perfectly recon-
ciled that her master was patting her mistress's
cheek with the backs of his fingers, and they both
appeared

' Still amorous, and fond, and billing,
Like Philip ajod Mary on a shilling.'

Or,

' Like dogs that snarl about a bone,
l And play together when they've none.'

Nollekens, though his cunning w T as truly amusing,
particularly whenever he could gain the whip-hand
of his w^ife, yet at times, like Sir Giles Overreach,
over-reached himself; and this he did most com-
pletely when he returned from Rome, as will
appear from the following anecdote, which was
communicated to me by one of his relations.

When he was preparing to leave Italy for
England, he wished to bring, among a quantity of
other things, a large picture, but after reflecting
upon the immense duty that might be put upon it
on account of its enormous size, he very ingeniously
hit upon the sensible expedient of cutting it into
several pieces, cunningly concluding that the in-
spector at the Custom-house would pass them over

CHARLES TOWNLEY 227

as useless mutilations. But lo ! when these cut-
tings were inspected, the officer, in placing them
together, detected his countryman's intended de-
ception, and by making it known to the Com-
missioners, he was made to pay for every portion as
a distinct picture.

Nollekens knew so little of what is generally
denominated good-breeding, that when he has been
at the country-house of any of his employers
putting up a monument, his conversation has been
often so unguarded and vulgar as to occasion a
table to be ordered for him in a room by himself,
which deprived him of the agreeable society he
might otherwise have been- entitled to. I know
this to have been the case when he was at the seat
of a certain nobleman, of which he complained to
Mrs. Nollekens on his return to town.

Mr. Charles Townley, however, did not follow
this plan, for that gentleman, who had noticed
Nollekens at Rome, kindly continued for years to
entertain him at his house, No. 7, in Park Street,
Westminster ; and whenever any person spake of
good eating, Mr. Nollekens always gave his friend
Mr. Townley the highest credit for keeping a most
excellent table. C I am sure,' said he, 'to make a
good dinner at his house on a Sunday ; but there is
a little man, a great deal less than myself, who
dines there, of the name of Devay, a French abbe,
who beats me out and out ; he is one of the greatest
gormandizers I ever met with, though, to look at
him, you would declare him to be in the most
deplorable state of starvation.'

228 NOLLEKENS AND HIS TIMES

The Abbe Devav was an excellent man : lie con-
versed and wrote in many languages, and his reading
and memory were so extensive and useful that
Mr. Townley, who referred to him in his literary
concerns, always called him his ' walking library.'
The high qualifications of the Abbe were also
known and acknowledged by other men of learn-
ing ; he was frequently present at the breakfast-
table and conversazioni of Sir Joseph Banks, and
instructed several persons of eminence in the
classics.

The Sunday dinners of Mr. Townley, mentioned
above, were principally for professors of the arts,
and Sir Joshua Eeynolds and Zoffany generally
enlivened the circle. The last-mentioned of these
celebrated characters painted a picture called ' Mr.
Townley's Gallery of Statues'; it was a portrait of
the library, though not strictly correct as to its
contents, since all the best of the marbles displayed
in various parts of the house were brought into the
painting by the artist, who made it up into a
picturesque composition according to his own taste.
The likeness of Mr. Townley is extremely good.
He is seated, and looks like the dignified possessor
of such treasures ; at his feet lies his favourite
dog Kam, a native of Kamschatka, whose mother
was one of the dogs yoked to a sledge which drew
Captain King in that island. Opposite to Mr.
Townley is Monsieur D'Hancarville, seated at a
table with a book open before him, behind whose
chair stand two others of his friends, Thomas
Astle, Esq., and the Hon. 'Charles G- revile, con-

CHARLES TOWN LEY 229

versing. There is a large engraving of this picture,
but unfortunately it is in an unfinished state. The
painting itself has lately been sent to Townley
Hall. This picture is of the same description, in
point of subject and colouring, as the one painted
by the same artist of the Florentine Gallery for the
late King George III.

That excellent monarch, having heard this collec-
tion of marbles much spoken of, so highly respected
Mr. Townley that his Majesty declared his intention
of visiting him, though he never did. It happened,
however, that when Mr. Townley petitioned the
Board of Works to allow a tree in the Birdcage
Walk which darkened his house to be cut down, the
King, to whom this petition was submitted, at once
most liberally gave permission, observing that Mr.
Townley should have every possible accommodation.
It is very remarkable that this gentleman was not
only obliged by the King, but afterwards by an
easterly wind, which, according to the proverb,
seldom proves beneficial, for no sooner was the tree
cut down than a tremendous hurricane arose, which
tore up the one that had stood next to it, by which
his rooms received an extensive and uninterrupted
light from the north.

From what I have seen and heard described, in
no instance can a orivate residence be found to
equal that of the late Charles Townley, Esq. The
possession of taste and an affluent fortune qualified
and enabled that enlightened and elegant gentleman
to indulge, in the course of his travels, in the
purchase of those antiques which now grace the

230 NOLLEKENS AND HIS TIMES

Townley Gallery of the British Museum, which
will clo eternal honour to his memory, as well as to
the Government which so liberally purchased them.
These treasures still keep their estimation with the
public, notwithstanding the Elgin marbles are now
considered by the professors, in every branch of
the polite arts, to comprise the artists' primer. I
shall now endeavour to anticipate the wish of the
reader by giving a brief description of those rooms
of Mr. Townley's house, in which that gentleman's
liberality employed me when a boy, with many
other students in the Royal Academy, to make
drawings for his portfolios.

As the visitor entered the hall, his attention was
arrested by an immense sarcophagus on his left
hand, measuring seven feet in length, opposite to
which were two heads of lions, the size of life, one
on either side of the chimney-piece. This hall was
also adorned with bas-reliefs, sepulchral monu-
ments, inscriptions, cinerary urns, etc., from the
villas of Fonsega, Montalto, Pullucchi, Antoninus
Pius, the Justiniani Palace, etc. The staircase was
enriched with sepulchral urns and numerous Roman
inscriptions, and a very curious and ancient chair of
Pavonazzo marble. In the space over the dining-
room door was a bas-relief of a mystical marriage,
When the marbles were conveyed to the British
Museum, this space was filled up with a cast of a
boar taken from the celebrated one at Paris. The
parlour or dressing-room in Park Street contained
a rich display of votive altars, sepulchral urns, and
inscriptions. Among the marbles was a most

CHARLES TOWNLEY 231

spirited statue o a Satyr, the thumb of whose
right hand is enclosed between his two fore-fingers ;
it is now numbered 24 in the Townley Gallery
in the British Museum, and this small but excellent
specimen of ancient art was presented to Mr.
Townley by his friend Lord Cawdor. The ancient,
rare, and truly interesting collection of terra-cottas
brought from Rome by Nollekens, which has been
already noticed in an early page of this volume, was
let into the walls of this room. Of the female
figures in these specimens the tasteful Cipriani was
so extremely fond that he has been heard to
declare to Mr. Townley that they afforded him so
much pleasure that he never knew when to leave
them.

The dining-parlour looking over St. James's
Park was a room in which Mr. Townley has enter-
tained personages of the highest rank in this
kingdom, as well as visitors from all nations who
were eminent for the brilliancy of their wit or their
literary acquirements, and it contained the greater
part of his statues. Here stood those of Libera,
Isis, Diana, the Discobolus, a drunken Faun, and
an Adonis ; but, above all, that most magnificent
one, of Venus, which measures six feet four inches
in height. Mr. Nollekens informed me that, in
the conveyance of this statue to England, the
following singular stratagem to save the immense
duty upon so large and so perfect a figure was
resorted to. In consequence of it having been dis-
covered that the figure had been carved from two
blocks and put together at the waist, at the com-

232 NOLLEKENS AND HIS TIMES

mencement of the drapery, it was separated, and
sent at different times, so that the duty upon each
fragment amounted to a mere trifle. It is now
numbered 14 in the Townley Gallery in the British
Museum.

Among the busts was that of Caracalla, and one
of the most beautiful vases perhaps in the world.
It is embellished with Bacchanalian figures, and
was brought from the Villa of Antoninus, where
other treasures of art have been discovered. Over
the chimney-piece in the drawing-room, looking
into Park Street, was a bas-relief in terra-cotta of
a marriage ceremony, modelled by Mr. Nollekens
from the one over the dining-room door. This
performance was highly esteemed by Mr. Townley,
who always spake of Mr. Nollekens as the first
sculptor of his day.

The drawing-room, commanding a most beautiful
view of the Park, contained principally the follow-
ing heads and busts : Decebatus, Marcus Aurelius,
Hadrian, Trajan, Hercules, Antinous, and Adonis ;
but of all others, that of Isis upon the Lotus was
considered by artists to be one of the most perfect
and beautiful specimens of sculpture. It was
purchased of Prince Laurenzano, of Naples, in
1772. This bust of Isis, which Mr. Nollekens
considered to be a portrait of the sculptor's model,
was so much admired by him that he always had a
copy of it in marble purposely for sale. The last
one was sold, after the collection was purchased by
Government, to John Townley, Esq., for one
hundred guineas, who was delighted to see so

CHARLES TOWNLEY 233

exquisite a copy placed in the situation which the
original had graced for so many years.

The same room also contained a child asleep,
a figure of Diana seated, and a lion's head with
horns. Of this last specimen I have heard Mr.
Chantrey speak in rapturous terms, particularly as
to the animated manner in which the artist had
used the drill in finishing the mane, for this tool,
when judiciously introduced in hair, certainly gives
wonderful vigour and depth of touch, as may be
seen in the numerous portraits of persons of the
highest rank and talent produced by Chantrey,
whose busts alone have secured him unrivalled
fame.

The library was highly interesting : it was lighted
from above, and was in every respect an excellent
room for study. The marbles in it were not so
numerous as those in the dining-parlour, but they
consisted of some choice specimens. Among the
busts were those of Antoninus Pius, Titan,
Caracalla's wife, Plautilla, Lucius Verus, and the
celebrated one of Homer, which has been so
repeatedly and admirably engraven. Here were
also the heads of Adonis, and that beautiful one
of a child with its locks uncut over its right
ear, together with the exquisite little statue of
Angerona, which is now called a Venus, and
numbered 22 in the gallery of the British Museum.
Mr. Nollekens renewed the arms of this figure, for
which restoration I stood when his pupil.

Mr. Townley was so enamoured with his favourite
busts of Isis, Pericles, and Homer, the most perfect

234 NOLLEKENS AND HIS TIMES

specimens of ancient art, that he employed the
hand of Skelton, Sharpe's favourite pupil, to
engrave them upon a small plate, which he used as
his visiting-card. This elegant performance, always
considered a great rarity, was left only at the
houses of particular persons, so that an impression
of it is now greatly coveted by the collectors of
such bijoux.

Of all Mr. Townley's friends, I am perfectly
convinced that no one respected him more than
Mr. Christie, the auctioneer, and a member of the
Dilettanti Society, for whose learning and classical
acquirements Mr. Townley had the highest esteem,
and to whom he always gave up the keys of his
cabinets whenever he visited him. Mr. Townley
was buried at Burnley, near Townley Hall, in
Lancashire ; and so much was he beloved by the
country people far and near, that as his hearse
passed the sides of the road were crowded and the
windows of the town filled, the spectators being all
silent and uncovered.

Mr. Townley's bust in the first room of the
Gallery of Antiquities in the British Museum is
considered a pretty good likeness, though the lower
part of the face is certainly too full. Mr. Nollekens
carved it after Mr. Townley's death, from a mask
which he took from his face. Another bust by
Nollekens, though by no means so good either in
art or likeness, has been bequeathed to the same
national institution by the late Richard Payne
Knight, Esq.

The Dilettanti Society, as well as other learned

TOWNLEY' S HOUSE 235

men, with whom Mr. Townley had lived in the
most cheerful and instructive intercourse, were
deprived of their accustomed pleasures by his
death, which took place in the bedchamber on the
second floor looking over the Park, on January 3,
1805. In this room also died his uncle, John
Townley, Esq., a highly -respected gentleman, who
had for many years been an eminent collector of
Hollar's works, of English portraits for the illus-
tration of Granger's ' Biographical History of
England,' and of rare and valuable books, for the
reception of which he had fitted up the dining and
drawing rooms facing the Park, with accommodating
galleries all round. The house is now inhabited by
his son, Peregrine Edward Townley, Esq., a family
trustee of the British Museum.

This house, which was purchased by Mr. Townley
in that state denominated by builders ! a shell,' was
finished according to his own taste ; but the ground
upon which it stands, as well as that of several
adjoining mansions, belongs to Christ's Hospital.
The late Koyal Cockpit, which afforded Hogarth
an excellent scene for his humour, remained a
next-door noisy nuisance to Mr. Townley for many
years. It is a curious fact that of this print of the
Cockpit by Hogarth, as well as those of the Gates
of Calais and South wark Fair, I have never seen,
read, nor heard of an etching, nor of any im-
pression whatever, with a variation from the state
in which they were published.

This is the more extraordinary as they are all
highly-finished plates, and the artist must have

236 NOLLEKENS AND HIS TIMES

required many proofs of them in their progress
before he could have been satisfied with their effect,
particularly in that of Southwark Fair, which, in
my opinion, is not only the deepest studied as to
composition, and light and shade, but the most
elaborately finished, and perhaps the most inno-
cently entertaining of all his works. For great as
Hogarth was in his display of every variety of
character, I should never think of exhibiting a
portfolio of his prints to the youthful inquirer ; nor
can I agree that the man who was so accustomed
to visit, so fond of delineating, and who gave up so
much of his time to the vices of the most abandoned
classes, was in truth a c moral teacher of mankind.'
My father knew Hogarth well, and I have often
heard him declare that he revelled in the company
of the drunken and profligate Churchill, Wilkes,
Hayman, etc., were among his constant companions.
Dr. John Hoadly, though in my opinion it reflected
no credit on him, delighted in his company ; but
he did not approve of all the prints produced by
him, particularly that of the first state of c En-
thusiasm Displayed,' which, had Mr. Garrick or
Dr. Johnson seen, they could never for a moment
have entertained their high esteem of so irreligious
a character.

[ 237 ]

CHAPTER X.

Mr. Nollekens' intelligence whilst abroad Prints of Marc- Antonio
Distinction of draperies and flesh in sculpture Dutch tables, and
improvement in English taste Difficulties attendant on the lighting
of pieces of sculpture Ignorance of persons employed to erect and
repair them. Huge blocks of marble used by modern sculptors
Fatal consequences of piecing the stone Works of a mender of
antiques Anecdote of Mr. Whitbread Coquetry, death, and funeral
of Angelica Kauffmann Death and epitaph of Miss Welch Mr.
Nollekens' visits to the Opera Instances of his economy and ignor-
ance Dog- Jennings.

It is reasonable to expect, in the course of repeated
conversations with travellers, or with persons who
have resided several years abroad, some little
account of their particular pursuits and employ-
ments, as well as of their pleasures and amuse-
ments ; but it is most extraordinary that Mr.
Nollekens' observations on events which had
taken place during his absence from England
never led him to speak of works of sculp-
ture unless he was questioned ; and then his
answers did not prove that he possessed any depth
of knowledge of their history. Indeed, they
amounted to little more than monosyllabic answers,
though I am certain, if he had turned to his

238 NOLLEKENS AND HIS TIMES

memorandum-books, in which there were numerous
sketches of groups, statues, and busts, with their
mutilations and measurements, he certainly could
have afforded much information. But this power
he did not possess ; nor was he inclined to look
them over until the later period of his life, when
his mind, had it ever been qualified, would, accord-
ing to the decay of nature, have been less capable to
apply them to any use.

During the long period of my knowledge of him,
Nollekens never once attempted to descant upon
the sublimity of thought, the grandeur of the
composition, nor the energetic expression of the
Laocoon, the Apollo Belvidere, the Farnese Her-
cules, the Niobe, the Venus de Medici, nor the
Diana of Ephesus. Nor did he ever appear to have
an inclination to collect the rise, progress, and
history of his art. A Babylonian seal with him
would have been a thing of no further estimation
than for its colour as a stone. A figure with its
legs and feet closed together was never noticed by
him as the first attempt of Egyptian sculpture, nor
was he aware that the projection of one leg before
the other was their first step to action, nor that the
arms of two seated figures, male and female, across
each other's back was the first instance of grouping
with the Egyptians. He knew very little as to the
introduction of Grecian art into Rome ; though he
was certainly pretty well informed as to the works
of Michael Angelo and John di Bologna, yet, at the
same time, he expressed himself with as much plea-
sure when he saw Bernini's group in the coachhouse

ENGRA VINOS 239

of Sir Joshua Reynolds as he possibly could with
the productions of the two preceding great men.

Nollekens' usual communications to his friends
were the number of miles from Rome to Loretto ;
the names of persons who walked together on a
very hot day ; that Mr. Dalton's 1 conduct towards
Mr. Strange, 2 the engraver, was shamefully cruel ;
that little Crone, 3 the landscape-draughtsman, who
was employed to collect prints in Rome for Mr.
Mangin, of Dublin, was much ridiculed by the
natives on account of his deformity ; or that such
a Cardinal feigned a consumptive cough at the time
of an election for a Pope. One curious anecdote,
however, he frequently related when showing his
prints namely, that when he was at Rome, at the
fair time, the original plates engraved by Marc-
Antonio were printed for the bystanders at a
shilling an hour, the employer finding ink and
paper ; and that the eagerness with which these
worn-out and repeatedly touched-up publications of
Antonio Salamanca were collected induced the
visitors to cry out : ' The next shilling's worth is
for me ;' or, ' It is my turn now.' This will at once
account for the great quantity of bad impressions
from Marc-Antonio's plates which are now in
existence.

Much has frequently been said by those persons
who understand little of the matter respecting the

1 Richard Dalton (1720-1791), eEgraver and surveyor of the royal
pictures to George III. Ed.

2 Sir Robert Strange (1721-1792). Ed.

3 Robert Crone. He was an epileptic, and died in a fit in 1799.
Ed.

240 NOLLEKENS AND HIS TIMES

practice of modern sculptors, as it regards the
manner in which the texture of the respective
materials they represent should be carved. They
insist that no attempt to particularize any specific
substance should be made, but that every descrip-
tion of drapery should be treated alike, whether
linen, silk, or woollen so that it be drapery it is
enough. Another states that the silk drapery given
by Eoubiliac to the statue of Sir Isaac Newton at
Cambridge is more often admired than the other
parts of the figure ; and this may probably be the
case, as the ideas of those persons who praise the
statue for its silk mantle are confined to texture
only. But surely it would have been highly im-
proper if Roubiliac had given folds like those of
linen or woollen, when he knew that he had to
represent silk.

Chantrey's busts are valuable, in addition to their
astonishing strength of natural character, for the
fleshy manner in which he has treated them, which
every real artist knows to be the most difficult part
of the sculptor's task. Surely the man of taste,
after he has admired and spoken of the fleshiness
of a figure, would not think of blaming the sculptor
for attending to the manner in which he had carved
the ermine of a king's robe, the lawn sleeves of a
bishop's rochet, the silk riband of an order of
knighthood, or the woollen coat of an admiral.
Each of these articles should be precisely attended
to, or they will not remind us of the things which
they are intended to represent ; and if the sculptor
were wholly inattentive to texture, many a lawyer

FLESH IN MARBLE 241

would be deprived of his silk gown. Suppose the
artist had to carve a negro's woolly head, should
the hair be as sleek and oily as his skin ? In my
opinion, unquestionably not ; nor should the foam
of the fiery steed be glossy like its coat. The flesh
of that truly beautiful figure of Charity, by West-
macott, now in his studio, is powerfully and properly
contrasted by the coarseness of the dowlas drapery
with which he has covered her limbs ; and perhaps
I cannot point out a more striking instance of the
unequivocal influence of contrast than that which is
displayed in this figure.

Nollekens, great as he certainly was as a sculptor
of busts, never produced that lively fleshiness which
we see so pre-eminently attended to by the best
English sculptors of the present day ; and yet he
was fully aware of its beauty and high importance,
for I have often heard him observe, when anyone
was looking at an antique head of a Faun, which
was afterwards purchased at his sale by his Grace
the Duke of Newcastle, that he never saw flesh
better represented in marble, and that it was for
that great excellence he bought it. But though
texture of the mechanical materials is by no means
to be neglected, it can be viewed by an intellectual
person in a secondary light only ; and it has often
of late years given me great pleasure to observe
that the same class of persons, who in my boyish
days would admire a bleeding-heart cherry painted
upon a Pontipool tea-board, or a Tradescant straw-
berry upon a Dutch table, 1 now attentively look,

1 This description of table, the pride of our great-grandmothers, in
which the brightest colours were most gorgeously displayed, was first

16

242 NOLLEKENS AND HIS TIMES

and for a long time, too, with the most awful
respect at the majestic fragments of the Greek
sculptors' art so gloriously displayed in the Elgin
Gallery. These are indeed treasures, the merits
of which, in my humble opinion, men of the first
talent, however powerful might be their command
of words, would find themselves at least inadequate
to describe.

There is one truly lamentable disadvantage to
which the works of our best sculptors are frequently
exposed, namely, the want of a good light, without
which their labours cannot be viewed with that
essential assistance which the painter's productions
can in most instances procure.

The exquisitely-finished and numerous beauties
of a cabinet-picture can at all times be appreciated
by placing it in its proper light upon an easel as the
artist painted it, and intended it should be viewed ;
and a large picture may be hung in a gallery under
a certain admission of light falling upon it, accord-
ing to the arrangement and intention of the artist.
For the old historical painters always considered
very attentively the portion and power of light, as
well as the precise time it would fall upon those

imported from Holland into England in the reign of William and
Mary. The top was nothing more than a large oval tea-tray, with a
raised scalloped border round it, fixed upon a pillar, having a claw of
three legs. They are now and then to be met with in our good old-
fashioned family mansions, and brokers' shops.

They were formerly considered by our aunts Deborah to be such
an ornament to a room that, in order to exhibit them to advantage,
they were put up in the corner of a waiting-parlour for the admira-
tion of the country tenants when they brought their rents, or sat
waiting their turn for an order for coals in a severe winter. Smith.

SCULPTURE IN CHURCHES 243

parts of the walls to which their labours were
destined, and they painted their pictures either
brighter or darker, modestly low or powerfully
strong, according to existing or adventitious cir-
cumstances. Sometimes, however, when they were
unavoidably compelled to occupy a gloomy recess
in a small chapel, illumined only by a borrowed or
a reflected light, they first of all considered the
angle of reflection under which their performances
could be best seen, and then painted their picture so
as to meet it.

The sculptor, on the contrary, unaided by
colours, has perhaps either too much or too little
light for his monument, and is often obliged to
erect it where there is hardly any at all, because
that part of the church belongs to the family, or
they insist upon having it as near as possible to
their pew, which has always gone with the mansion
they reside in ; thus enshrouding themselves in
their own primitive importance in the parish, at the
same time, perhaps, being totally ignorant of the
effect of a masterpiece of art, upon which they
have expended a considerable sum ; or not in any
way evincing an interest for the fame of the artist
employed, whose reputation has invited travellers
to visit the church, which is often a great source of
pleasure to the tourist.

I remember that Flaxman, after he had put up
his monument to the memory of Lord Mansfield in
Westminster Abbey, applied to the Dean for per-
mission to cover a small portion of a window with
a gray colour, in order to shut out an unpleasant

244 NOLLEKENS AND HIS TIMES

glare of light ; but the Dean, to the great mortifica-
tion of the sculptor, would not comply with the
request. Nollekens seldom knew, nor, indeed, did
any of the English sculptors of former days care,
in what part of a country church their monuments
were to be placed ; they received the measurements
of the space they were to occupy from the family,
who had them from the carpenter, who was not
at all times very correct, without any notice of the
aspect, or stating whether the space were over or
under a window, or against a pier, or near the altar,
receiving a vertical light or a diagonal one ; and
upon this carelessly-measured order the sculptor
proceeded, never dreaming that his work was to be
placed close to the vestry-door in a dark corner.
Then, too, when it was up, the plasterer was to
adorn it with a neat jet-black border of a foot in
width ! so that it should match unostentatiously
with a monument on the opposite side, in an equally
forlorn situation, belonging to a family with whom
the relatives of the last deceased had been for ages
inveterately at variance ; whilst, to crown the whole
of this unhappy injury to art, the putting up was
generally entrusted to a mason, who, upon his
return to London, was rarely questioned as to where
it was erected, or as to how it looked.

To the praise of the artists, and the improved
taste of their employers of the present day, there is
very little of that monumental jobbing now per-
mitted ; the aspect and situation are first seen and
considered, accurate measurements are then made,
and the sculptor either sends his own experienced

SCULPTURE 245

assistants from London to erect it, or superintends
it himself. And here I consider it my duty to
state, notwithstanding what I have said of a late
Dean of Westminster, that even the country clergy
of the present day, from their more general know-
ledge of works of art, are, with very few exceptions,
both willing and desirous of affording the sculptor
every possible assistance in their power, either by
shutting out obtrusive li^ht, or admitting: a greater
flood of it where the artist may consider it beneficial.
I have also infinite pleasure in being able to state
that our present sculptors of eminence will not
submit to the directions of the ignorant employer
to the deterioration of their productions, however
powerful his station in life may be. It would be
as well if our dressers for theatrical representations
would be as honestly firm, and not attend to the
ridiculous gew-gaw directions of an obstinate
manager ; we should then stand a good chance of
seeing the true costume of place and period, instead
of being obliged to sit out a play grossly defective
in almost every scene.

Of the mode of producing a figure by what
Nollekens called manoeuvring the marble, and
making it up of bits, our modern sculptors so com-
pletely disapprove that they have even worked
nearly the whole of the groups of their monuments
erected in St. Paul's Cathedral out of one piece of
marble ; and so immense are the blocks now im-
ported into England for works of sculpture, that
at this moment Mr. Chantrey has one weighing
many tons, for which he paid about the sum

246 NOLLE KENS AND HIS TIMES

of 600. Flaxman's last and truly grand work
of St. Michael overpowering Satan, which he
executed for the Earl of Egremont's noble gallery
of modern sculpture at Petworth, is likewise of one
block ; and this is also the universal practice with
all the other eminent sculptors. Westmacott's
charming group of Venus and Cupid, which he
is now executing for the same liberal nobleman,
is from one block ; and Rossi's truly vigorous and
masterly figure of the Boxer, just finished for the
same gallery, is likewise cut out of one piece, as
well as Bailey's animated statue of Earl St. Vincent,
executed by order of Government.

And here I must earnestly request the reader,
who may not at present be acquainted with the
names of other sculptors, not to suppose for a
moment that I confine these remarks to the members
of the Royal Academy. I should then consider
myself unworthy of the esteem of many young
artists, whose works are shining ornaments to their
country, and who must ultimately fill the honour-
able seats of the present members ; but as there
are tares amongst the wheat, I considered it better
to confine myself to those individuals only who
have been acknowledged by so honourable a body
as the Royal Academy, fully trusting that the
time will arrive when I shall more extensively have
it in my power to hand down a list of the pro-
ductions of some of them with as much pleasure
and impartiality as I have those who at present so
deservedly flourish under the distinguished appella-
tion of Royal Academicians.

MASONS 247

To return to the subject, however, I should
observe that the disadvantages of piecing the
marble are often obvious, even to the most common
observer ; as may be seen in many instances, where
either the cramps have burst or given way, or,
from their not having been properly covered with
resin, the iron has so corroded the marble as
entirely to disfigure some of our finest works of
art. Another great objection which may be
adduced to the joining of marble is that, where the
joints are made in preponderating parts, it usually
happens that they give way, fall, and are broken.
And even this is not all, for sometimes, when such
an accident happens at a great distance from the
capital, the seat of most of our eminent artists, the
common mason of the district is called in to reset
the head or a broken limb a fellow perhaps who,
with all the kindred and impenetrable hardness of
his own granite, as soon as he is admitted into your
presence, puts his mallet-hand to his side in readi-
ness to pull out his two-foot rule, which he is
always sure to open at a right angle before he
answers or even hears the question ; and then,
immediately after rubbing the back of his right
ear and most accurately measuring the fractured
parts, hits upon a plan of cutting out the mutila-
tions by taking about three inches from the arm of
the statue ! The very thoughts of such masonic
masters of the craft paint to my imagination the
sort of fellow he must have been who put the left-
hand glove upon the right hand of the effigy of
Guy Faux, in Hogarth's humorously-entertaining

248 NOLLEKENS AND HIS TIMES

print, illustrative of Huclibras, called the c Burning
of the Rumps.'

. However, should any of my readers exclaim
with Osric, c A hit, a very palpable hit !' I could,
in compassion to those who blindly employ these
masonic followers of Praxiteles, relate several
things equally good of a wealthy man of some
family, who turns his back upon all modern
sculpture in consequence of his having been at
Athens ; and because he has become the happy
possessor of some of the worst fragments of the
antique in this kingdom, employs a mere mason to
put them together, and is perfectly satisfied, though
a right foot has been most ingeniously placed upon
a left leg! Indeed, so fond is he of the antique,
that I have known him to order his bungler to
match a head with the best body he could find in
the mass of his dearly-acquired treasures, and then
to carve new limbs to match out of those that were
too large for other purposes, so that he might have
precisely the same stone. He is well acquainted
with the quarries whence the marble of such and
such a figure was taken, and is also quite perfect
in recollecting the names of ancient marbles.

Mr. Nollekens informed me that the late Mr.
Samuel Whitbread bought two fragments of antique,
statues of him for 200, and that the man sent by
Mr. Whitbread to pack them up for the country
used screws instead of nails. c Why,' said Mr.
Nollekens, ' do you use screws, when nails would
answer every purpose?' 'Lord, sir!' exclaimed
the carpenter, i I used screws to all the cases for

ANGELICA KAUFFMAAN 249

the Piccadilly leaden figures !' The fact was this :
a man in the Borough had purchased the greater
number of Cheere's leaden figures at the auction
in Piccadilly. Mr. Whitbread bought nearly the
whole of him, and had them put up and sent to his
pleasure-grounds, with as much caution as if they
had been looking-glasses of the greatest dimensions
for his drawing-room.

The reader will probably recollect the manner
in which Angelica Kauffmann was imposed upon
by a gentleman's servant, who married her under
the name of Count Horn, and the way in which
his treachery was discovered, as related in the
early part of this volume. Angelica, however,
was universally considered as a coquette, so that
we cannot deeply sympathize in her disappoint-
ment ; and as a proof how justly she deserved
that character, I shall give an anecdote which
I have often heard Mr. Nollekens relate. When
Angelica was at Rome, previously to her marriage,
she was ridiculously fond of displaying her
person and being admired, for which purpose she
one evening took her station in one of the most
conspicuous boxes of the theatre, accompanied
by Nathaniel Dance and another artist, both of
whom, as well as many others, were desperately
enamoured of her. Angelica perhaps might have
recollected the remonstrance of Mrs. Peachum,
where she says :

' Oh, Polly, you might have toy'd and kiss'd :
By keeping men off you keep them on.'

However, while she was standing between her two

250 NOLLEKENS AND HIS TIMES

beaux, and finding an arm of each most lovingly
embracing her waist, she contrived, whilst her arms
were folded before her on the front of the box
over which she was leaning, to squeeze the hand
of both, so that each lover concluded himself
beyond all doubt the man of her choice.

On page 20 of Mr. Prince Hoare's ' Academic
Annals for 1808 ' is recorded the following com-
munication which was made to the members of the
Koyal Academy :

' December 23rd. In the General Assembly the President declared
the decease of Angelica Kauffmann Zucchi. one of the Members of the
Academy. 5

The account of the loss of this distinguished
artist was received in a letter from Dr. Borsi, of
Rome, who, after relating the circumstances of her
illness and death, which happened on November 5
previous, proceeds to describe her obsequies,
celebrated in the Church of S. Andrea cle' Frati,
under the direction of the sculptor Canova and
others of her friends. ' The church,' savs Dr.
Borsi, ' was decorated in the manner customary on
the interment of those of noble family. At ten in
the morning the corpse was accompanied to the
church by two very numerous fraternities, fifty
Capuchins and fifty priests. The bier was carried
by some of the brotherhood, and the four corners
of the pall were supported by four young ladies,
dressed suitably to the occasion. The four tassels
were held by the four principal members of the
Academy of St. Luke ; these were followed by the
rest of the Academicians and other virtuosi, each

ANNE WELCH 251

one with a large wax-taper lighted in his hand.
Two pictures, painted by the deceased, completed
the procession.'

After the death of the footman who had married
Angelica, and to whom she had allowed a separate
maintenance, she became the wife of Zucchi, the
painter, but continued to go by the name of
Angelica Kauffmann.

Mrs. Nollekens at this time received a most
severe and unexpected shock by the death of her
sister, Miss Welch, with whom she had always
lived in ties of the fondest love, paying the strictest
respect to every observation or wish she uttered,
according to the early advice given her by their
mutual friend, Dr. Samuel Johnson, who generally
spoke of Miss Welch as Miss Nancy. She died at
Bath, and was buried in the abbey of that city,
where an inscription was erected as follows :

1 Sacred to the Memory of Mrs. Anne Welch,
of Aylesbury, in the County of Bucks,
Daughter of Saunders Welch, Esq.
1 Admired by her friends, beloved by her acquaintance, blessed with
distinguished abilities, she was so improved by the knowledge of
various languages and science, that elegance of diction, beauty of
sentiment, the majesty of wisdom, and the grace of persuasion, ever
hung upon her lips. The bonds of life being gradually dissolved, she
winged her flight from this world in expectation of a better on
the 15th of January, 1810.

'Her afflicted and affectionate sister, Maria Nollekens, in full
assurance of their happy reunion, caused this monument to be
erected.' 1

I am at present ignorant of the name of the
author of the above inscription ; but allowing Mrs.

1 For this copy of Miss Welch's inscription I am obliged to my
amiable friend Mrs. Gwillim. Smith.

252 NOLLEKENS AND HIS TIMES

Nollekens to have breathed only half the feelings
it sets forth, we shall be giving that lady credit for
great forbearance, as her cousin, Mr. Woodcock,
has informed me that she was much chagrined upon
finding that her sister's house at Aylesbury, with
its furniture, had been but a short time before her
death willed to another person.

I have spoken of the partiality of Nollekens for
the Italian Opera, at which place of amusement he
used to exhibit himself in his sword and bag in the
pit to hear Grrassini sing, though, at the same time,
he was so ignorant of music that he could not have
discovered any difference between the major and
minor keys. The portion of the performance
which really attracted him was, I doubt not, the
agile movements of the female dancers in the ballet.
He was at that time so well known at the opera-
house, that several of the military, who had an eye
to his property, would attend him, though in their
full uniform, to the door to see him safe into a
hackney-coach, an expense he indulged in only
when it rained hard. If, however, the reader be
surprised at this, what will he say when he is
informed that on the following morning he was
sometimes seen disputing with the cobbler, his
opposite neighbour, about the charge of twopence,
and refusing to pay Crispin's demand unless he put
three or four more sparables in the heels of the
shoes which he had mended twice before !

One day Mr, Northcote the Academician, the
best and favourite pupil of Sir Joshua Reynolds,
had just reached his door in Argyle Street, when

NOLLEKENS' SPELLING 253

Nollekens, who was looking up at the house, put
the following question to him : i Why don't you have
your house painted, Northcote ? Why, it's as dirty
as Jem Barry's was in Castle Street. I wonder
Beverly would let him live in it !' Now, Nollekens
had no right to exult over his brother artist in
this way, for he had given his own door a coat of
paint, and his front passage a whitewash, only the
day before, and they had been for years in the most
filthy state possible.

Miss Welch brought down upon herself his
eternal hatred by kindly venturing to improve him
in his spelling. She was a friendly and benevolent
woman, and I am indebted to her and the amiable
Mrs. Barker for many acts of kindness during the
time I was labouring under a tremendous loss by
fire. One evening, when I was drinking tea with
her at her lodgings, No. 69 in Newman Street, she
showed me a little book in which she had put down
Mr. Nollekens' way of spelling words in 1780, with
the manner in which they should be written. I
copied a few of them with her permission, which, I
must say, she gave me with some reluctance, not-
withstanding she disliked Nollekens most cordially,
though they were both Catholics. The following
instances may serve as specimens : ' Yousual,
scenceble, obligin, modle, wery, gentilman, promist,
sarvices, desier, Inglish, perscription, hardently,
jenerly, moust, devower, Jellis, Retier, sarved,
themselfs, could for cold, clargeman, facis, cupple,
foure, sun for son, boath sexis, daly, horsis, ladie,
cheif, talkin, tould, shee, sarch, paing, ould mades,

254 NOLLEKENS AND HIS TIMES

racis, yoummer in his face, palas, oke, lemman,
are-bolloon, sammon, chimisters for chemists, yoke
for yolk, grownd,' etc.

Let me, however, entreat my readers to believe
that I detest the character of a critic of words, and
that my only motive of touching upon Mr. Nolle -
kens' ignorance in the year 1780 is to induce
them to believe that, when he made so many
codicils above forty years afterwards, he did not
know the true meaning of many words that we now
and then find in testamentary writings. A curious
specimen or two will be given in a future page of
this work of his ignorance of the true meaning of
words pronounced by him, even at a moment when
most persons believed him to be perfectly sane.

Towards the close of one of the hottest days in
summer, as Mr. Nollekens was returning from the
bench placed in front of the Queen's Head and
Artichoke as a seat for those persons whose dress
did not appear to entitle them to accommodation
withinside the house, he asked his man Dodimy
Avhat charitable actions he had done lately.
' Charity, sir ? Bless you ! it's a long time since
you gave any.' 4 Well, then,' said his master, ' take
the twopence out of your waistcoat-pocket that you
had in change from the ale to that poor fellow
walking there.' ' What, to that little man in the
brown coat ?' ' Yes, sir, to that little man in the
brown coat.' ' Lord bless you ! that's Dog-Jen-
nings !' This eccentric gentleman, who was a
person of high taste and considerable family
fortune, received this name from his having brought

DOG-JENNINGS 255

into England an antique sculpture of a dog, with
several other fine pieces of art, which were sold by
auction by the elder Christie. The dog brought
one thousand guineas, and was purchased by Mr.
Buncombe, of Yorkshire ; but a mould of it be-
longs to Sarti, the figure-maker, a cast from which
makes a most noble appearance in a gentleman's
hall. Nollekens : c What ! my old friend, Noel
Jennings ? What the devil does he do on this side
of the water in Marybone Fields ? Does he look
this way ?' ' No, sir,' was the reply. c Ah, well,
then, walk on this side ; don't let him see me.
Why, Mrs. Palmer left him a good piece of the
pigeon-pie last Sunday, when she made a day of it.
I paid the coach for both of us ; and Jennings,
according to custom, produced a bottle of cham-
pagne.' ' I know, sir,' rejoined Dodimy ; ' I heard
Mrs. Nollekens tell Mary all about it ; and, I can
tell you, mistress don't half like such ramblings.'

[2 5 6]

CHAPTER XL

The Elgin marbles brought to England Inquiries on them by a
Committee of the House of Commons, with answers by Nollekens,
Flaxman, Westmacott, Chantrey, Sir Thomas Lawrence, and
President West Remarks on them by a riding-master Contrast
of the manners of Nollekens and Flaxman Collection of medals
made by the latterOld medals of Italy, and those by Pisano
English medals by T. Simon French medals of Andrieu Coins
collected by Mr. Nollekens His loss by robbery His prints, gems,
and casts in plaster Art not hereditary.

When Lord Elgin's marbles arrived in England,
his lordship invited all persons of taste to view
them at his house, the corner of Park Lane, in
Piccadilly, now the town residence of his Koyal
Highness the Duke of Gloucester. They were
shortly afterwards moved to the side premises of
Burlington House, where they remained until a
temporary gallery could be prepared for them in the
British Museum by Government, which had pur-
chased them for the use of the public and the
advancement of art. During the time these marbles
were Lord Elgin's property, Mr. Nollekens, accom-
panied by his constant companion, Joseph Bonomi
a truly amiable youth, to whom from his birth
he had intended to be a benefactor paid them many

THE ELGIN MARBLES 257

visits ; and, indeed, at that time not only all the
great artists, but every lover of the arts, were
readily admitted. The students of the Royal
Academy, and even Flaxman, the Phidias of our
times, and the venerable President West, drew from
them for weeks together.

As the mention of these marbles may bring to my
readers the recollection of events which some of
them may have nearly forgotten, I shall now intro-
duce Mr. Nollekens' answers to the Committee of
the House of Commons, contrasted with those of
Flaxman, together with a few of those of Sir
Thomas Lawrence and other great men of the
highest eminence in our countrv, who were called
upon for their opinion as to the excellence of those
wonderful works of art :

Chairman of the Committee. 'Mr. Nollekens, are you well acquainted
with the collection of marbles brought to England by Lord Elgin ?'
' I am.'

' What is your opinion of those marbles, as to the excellency of the
work ? ' They are very fine the finest things that ever came to this
country.'

* In what class do you place them, as compared with the finest
marbles which you have seen formerly in Italy?' ' I compare them
to the finest of Italy.'

'Which of those of my Lord Elgin's do you hold in the highest
estimation ?' ' I hold the Theseus and the Neptune to be two of the
finest things finer than anything in this country.'

' In what class do you place the bas-reliefs ?' ' They are very fine
among the first class of bas-relief work.'

' Do you think that the bas-reliefs of the Centaurs are in the finest
class of art ?' ' I do think so.'

' Do you think the bas-reliefs of the frieze, representing the Pro-
cession, also in the first class of the art ?' ' In the first class of the
art.'

' Do you conceive those two sets to be of or about the same date ?'
' I cannot determine upon that.'

17

258 NOLLEKENS AND HIS TIMES

1 Have you ever looked at this collection with a view to the value of
it ?'_< No, I have not. 5

1 Can you form any sort of estimate of the value of it ?' ' I cannot
say anything about the value.'

'Do you think it very desirable, as a national object, that this
collection should become public property ?' ' Undoubtedly.'

Can you form any judgment as to the date of those works, com-
paring them with other works that you have seen in Italy ?' 'I sup-
pose they are about as old ; but they may be older or later.'

1 To which of the works you have seen in Italy do you think the
Theseus bears the greatest resemblance ?' ' I compare that to the
Apollo Belvidere and Laocoon.'

' Do you think the Theseus of as fine sculpture as the Apollo ?'
1 1 do.'

1 Do you think it has more or less of ideal beauty than the Apollo ?'
' I cannot say it has more than the Apollo.'

' Has it as much ?' ' I think it has as much.'

* Do you think that the Theseus is a closer copy of fine nature than
the Apollo ?' ' No ; I do not say it is a finer copy of nature than the
Apollo.'

' Is there not a distinction among artists between a close imitation
of nature and ideal beauty ?' ' I look upon them as ideal beauty, and
closeness of study from nature.'

' You were asked just now if you could form any estimate of the
value of this collection ; can you put any value upon them, compara-
tively with the Townley marbles ?' ' I reckon them very much higher
than the Townley marbles for beauty.'

' Suppose the Townley marbles to be valued at 20,000, what might
you estimate these at ?' ' They are quite a different thing ; I think
the one is all completely finished and mended up, and these are real
fragments as they have been found, and it would cost a great deal of
time and expense to put them in order.'

Tor the use of artists, will they not answer every purpose in
their present state ?' ' Yes, perfectly ; I would not have them
touched.'

' Have you seen the Greek marbles lately brought to the Museum ?'
I have.'

1 How do you rank those in comparison with these ?' ' Those are
very clever, but not like those of Lord Elgin's.'

' Then you consider them very inferior ?' ' No ; I consider them
inferior to Lord Elgin's not very inferior, though they may be called
inferior.'

' When you studied in Italy, had you many opportunities of seeing

EVIDENCE OF FLAXMAN 259

remains of Grecian art ?' ' I saw all the fine things to be seen at Rome,
both in painting and sculpture.'

' Do you remember a piece of bas-relief representing Bacchus and
Icarus, in the Townley collection ?' ' I recollect all those things ; I
used to spend my Sundays there with Mr. Townley.'

' Do you happen to recollect particularly that piece ?' ' No, I do not
recollect it among the great quantity of things.'

' Have you formed any idea of the value of these objects in the
light of acquisitions to individuals, as objects of decoration, if sold
individually ? ; ' I cannot put a value upon them ; they are by far the
finest things that ever came to this country.'

' Do you mean by that that you consider them so valuable that you
cannot put a value upon them ?' ' No, I do not know : as to fine
things, they are not to be got every day. 7

' Do you consider part of the value of the Townley collection to have
depended upon the cost and labour incurred in restoring them ?' 'As
for restoring them, that must have cost a great deal of money ; I know
Mr. Townley was there for years about them.'

' Have the Elgin collection gained in general estimation and utility
since they have been more known and studied?' 'Yes.'

John Flaxman, Esq., R.A., called in, and examined.

'Are you well acquainted with the Elgin collection of marbles?'
' Yes, I have seen them frequently, and I have drawn from them ; and
I have made such inquiries as I thought necessary concerning them
respecting my art.'

' In what class do you hold them, as compared with the first works
of art which you have seen before ?' ' The Elgin marbles are mostly
basso-relievos, and the finest works of art I have seen. Those in the
Pope's Museum, and the other galleries of Italy, were the Laocoon,
the Apollo Belvidere ; and the other most celebrated works of antiquity
were groups and statues. These differ in the respect that they are
chiefly basso-relievos and fragments of statuary. With respect to their
excellence, they are the most excellent of their kind that I have seen ;
and I have every reason to believe that they were executed by Phidias,
and those employed under him, or the general design of them given by
him at the time the temple was built ; as we are informed that he was
the artist principally employed by Pericles, and his principal scholars,
mentioned by Pliny, Alcamenes, and about four others immediately
under him ; to which he adds a catalogue of seven or eight others, who
followed in order ; and he mentions their succeeding Phidias in the
course of twenty years. I believe they are the works of those artists ;
and in this respect they are superior to almost any works of antiquity,

260 NOLLEKENS AND HIS TIMES

excepting the Laocoon and Torso Farnese, because they are known to
have been executed by the artists whose names are recorded by the
ancient authors. With respect to the beauty of the basso-relievos,
they are as perfect nature as it is possible to put into the compass of
the marble in which they are executed, and that of the most elegant
kind. There is one statue, also, which is called a Hercules, or Theseus,
of the first order of merit. The fragments are finely executed, but I
do not, in my own estimation, think their merit is as great.'

' What fragments do you speak of ?' ' Several fragments of women
the groups without their heads. 5

'You do not mean the metopes?' 'No; those statues which were
in the east and west pediments originally.'

' In what estimation do vou hold the Theseus, as compared with the
Apollo Belvidere and the Laocoon ?' ' If you would permit me to
compare it with a fragment I will mention, I should estimate it before
the Torso Belvidere.'

' As compared with the Apollo Belvidere, in what rank do you hold
the Theseus ?' ' For two reasons I cannot at this moment very
correctly compare them in my own mind. In the first place, the
Apollo Belvidere is a divinity of a higher order than Hercules, and
therefore I cannot so well compare the two. I compared the Hercules
with a Hercules before, to make the comparison more just. In the
next place, the Theseus is not only on the surface corroded by the
weather, but the head is in that impaired state that I can scarcely give
an opinion upon it, and the limbs are mutilated. To answer the
question, I should prefer the Apollo Belvidere certainly, though I
believe it is only a copy.'

1 Does the Apollo Belvidere partake more of ideal beauty than the
Theseus ?' ' In my mind, it does decidedly ; I have not the least
question of it.'

' Do you think that increases its value ?' ' Yes, very highly. The
highest efforts of art in that class have always been the most difficult
to succeed in, both among ancients and moderns, if they have suc-
ceeded in it/

1 Supposing the state of the Theseus to be perfect, would you value
it more as a work of art than the Apollo ?' 'No ; I should value the
Apollo for the ideal beauty before any male statue I know.'

* Although you think it a copy ?' ' I am sure it is a copy ; the other
is an original, and by a first-rate artist.'

1 The Committee is very anxious to know the reason you have in
stating so decidedly your opinion that the Apollo is a copy.' ' There
are many reasons, and I am afraid it would be troublesome to the Com-
mittee to go through them. The general appearance of the hair and the

EVIDENCE OF FLAXMAN 261

mantle of the Apollo Belvidere is in the style more of bronze than of
marble ; and there is mentioned in the Pope's Museum (Pio Clemen-
tino) by the Chevalier Yisconti, who illustrated that museum, that
there was a statue in Athens I do not know whether it was in the
city or some particular temple, or whether the place is mentioned
an Apollo Alexicacos, a driver away of evil, in bronze, by Calamis,
erected on account of a plague that had been in Athens. From the
representations of this statue in basso-relievos, with a bow, it is
believed that this figure might be a copy of that. One reason I have
given is that the execution of the hair and cloak resembles bronze.
But another thing convinces me of its being a copy. I had a conver-
sation with Visconti and Canova on the spot, and my particular
reason is this : a cloak hangs over the left arm, which in bronze it was
easy to execute, so that the folds on one side should answer to the
folds on the other ; the cloak is single, and therefore it is requisite
that the folds on one side should answer to the folds on the other.
There is no duplication of drapery. In bronze that was easy to
execute, but in marble it was not ; therefore, I presume, the copyist
preferred copying the folds in front ; but the folds did not answer to
each other on one side and the other. Those on the back appear to
have been calculated for strength in the marble, and those in front to
represent the bronze, from which I apprehend they were copied.
There is another reason, which is that the most celebrated figure of
antiquity is mentioned by Pliny and its sculptor, the Yenus of Cnidus
by Praxiteles ; and he mentions it in a remarkable manner, for he
says the works of Praxiteles in the Ceramicus not only excel those of
all other sculptors, but his own, and this Yenus excels all that he ever
did. Now, it seems inconceivable that so fine a statue as the Apollo
could have been executed without its name being brought down to us
either by Pliny or Pausanias, if it had been esteemed the first statue
in the world. 5 . . .

' Do you conceive practically that any improvement has taken place
in the state of the arts in this country since this collection has been
open to the public ?'' Within these last twenty years, I think,
sculpture has improved in a very great degree, and I believe my
opinion is not singular ; but unless I was to take time to reflect upon
the several causes of which that has been the consequence, I cannot
pretend to answer the question. I think works of such prime import-
ance could not remain in the country without improving the public
taste and the taste of the artists.' . . .

' What characteristic mark do you observe of high antiquity, as
compared with the other works of antiquity ?' ' In the first place, I
observe a particular classification of the parts of the body ; and I have

262 NOLLEKENS AND HIS TIMES

adverted to the medical writer of that age, Hippocrates, and find that
the distinctions of the body, when they have been taken from the
finest nature, in the highest state of exercise, and in the best condition
in all respects, which might be expected from those who possessed
great personal beauty and cultivated habits of living most likely to
produce it, and who were accustomed to see it frequently in public
exercises this classification, which they appeared to prefer, is con-
formable to the distinctions in the statues. It is well known that in
the writings of Hippocrates a great deal of attention is paid to the
economy of the human body and its interior parts, but that its
exteriors are not described as our modern anatomists describe them,
but in a simple manner by a general classification of parts and
muscles. What I would particularly say on the subject is this:
Hippocrates describes the edges of the ribs as forming a semicircle at
the bottom of the upper thorax ; he describes with some accuracy the
meeting and form of the upper part of the scapula and acromion with
the collar-bone (that part is particularly marked in these figures) ; he
describes the knee-pan as a single bone : and that was their manner
of making the knee in the statues of that time ; and, if I remember
right, he also describes the upper part of the basiu-bone, which is par-
ticularly marked in the antique statues. In a few words, the form of
the body has a classification of a simple kind in a few parts, such as I
find in the ancient anatomists, and such as are common in the outlines
of the painted Greek vases. Besides, as far as I can judge from our
documents of antiquity the painted Greek vases, for example those
that come nearer to the time in which these marbles are believed to
be produced are conceived in the same character, and drawn in the
same manner.'

' Did not that classification continue much later than the time of
Pericles ?' ' Yes, it did continue later, but it became more compli-
cated, and in some cases more geometrical.'

1 Does the anatomy of these figures agree with the anatomy of the
Laocoon or of the Torso Farnese ?' ' They agree most with the Torso
Farnese. I cannot judge very accurately of that at this time, for it
was about to be removed from Rome at the time I was there, and it
is very much broken. In respect to the Laocoon, I believe it to be a
very posterior work, done after a time when considerable discoveries
had been made in anatomy in the Alexandrian school, which I think
had been communicated not only among physicians, but among artists
all over Greece ; and in the Laocoon the divisions are much more
numerous.'

' Do you observe any considerable difference in the conformation of
the horses between the metopes and the Procession ?' ' It is to be

EVIDENCE OF FLAXMAN 263

recollected, both in the metopes and the Procession, that different
hands have been employed upon them ; so that it is difficult, unless I
had them before me, to give a distinct opinion, particularly as the
horses in the metopes have not horses' heads. I do not think I can
give a very decided opinion upon it, but in general the character
appears to me very much the same.'

1 Should you have judged the metopes and the frieze to be of the
same age if they had not come from the same temple ?' ' Yes, un-
doubtedly I should.'

' Have you ever looked at this collection with a view to its value in
money?' 'I never have ; but I conceive that the value in money
must be very considerable, judging only from the quantity of sculpture
in it. The question never occurred to me before this morning, but it
appears to me that there is a quantity of labour equal to three or four
of the greatest public monuments that have lately been erected ; and
I think it is said either in Chandler's " Inscriptions " or in Stuart's
"Athens" that the temple cost a sum equal to 500,000.'

' Have you seen the Greek marbles lately deposited in the British
Museum? 'Yes.'

1 In what class do you place those, as compared with the basso-
relievos of Lord Elgin's collection ?' ' With respect to the excellence
of workmanship, the metopes and the basso-relievos of Procession are
very superior to those in the Museum, though the composition of the
others is exquisite.'

1 Which do you think the greatest antiquity ?' ' Lord Elgin's ; the
others I take to be nearly twenty years later. 1

In what rate do you class these marbles, as compared with Mr.
Townley's collection ?' ' I should value them more, as being the
ascertained works of the first artists of that celebrated age. The
greater part of Mr. Townley's marbles, with some few exceptions, are
perhaps copies, or only acknowledged inferior works.'

' Do you reckon Lord Elgin's marbles of greater value as never
having been touched by any modern hand ?' ' Yes.'

i In what class do you hold the draped figures, of which there are
large fragments ?' ' They are fine specimens of execution, but in
other respects I do not esteem them very highly, excepting the Iris
and a fragment of the Yictory.'

' Do you consider those to be of the same antiquity ? ' I do.'

' Be pleased to account for the difference in their appearance.' ' I
think sculpture at that time made a great stride. Phidias, having had
the advantage of studying painting, first gave a great freedom to his
designs. That freedom he was able to execute, or have executed, with
great ease in small and flat works ; but as the proportions of the

264 NOLLEKENS AND HIS TIMES

particular drawings of the figures were not so well understood generally
as they were a few years afterwards, there are some disproportions
and inaccuracies in the larger figures, the necessary consequences of
executing great works when the principles of an art are not estab-
lished.'

1 Do you recollect two figures that are sitting together with the arms
over each other ?' 'Yes.'

* Is your low estimation of the draped figures applicable to those ?'
' My opinion may be incorrect, and it may be more so by not having
the figures before me ; but I meant my observation to apply to all the
draped figures.'

' Were the proportions of those statues calculated to have their
effect at a particular distance ?' ' I believe not ; I do not believe the
art had arrived at that nicety.'

You have remarked probably those parts, particularly of the
Neptune and some of the metopes, that are in high perfection, from
having been preserved from the weather ?' 'I have remarked those
that are in the best condition.'

' Did you ever see any statue higher finished than those parts, or
that could convey an idea of high finish more completely to an artist ?'
' I set out with saying that the execution is admirable.'

' In those particular parts, have not you observed as high a finish as
in any statue that ever you saw ?' ' Yes ; and in some places a very
useless finish, in my opinion.'

' Do you think the Theseus and the Neptune of equal merit, or is
one superior to the other ?' ' Chevalier Canova, when I conversed
with him on the same subject, seemed to think they were equal. I
think the Ilissus is very inferior.'

' You think the Ilissus is inferior to the Theseus ?' ' Extremely
inferior ; and I am convinced, if I had had an opportunity of con-
sidering it with Chevalier Canova, he would have thought so, too.'

' Can you inform the Committee whether the climate of England is
likely to have a different effect upon the statues from the climate
from which they were brought, and whether it would be possible, by
keeping them under cover, to prevent the effect of the climate ?'
' Entirely.'

1 You know the bas-relief in the Townley collection of Bacchus and
Icarus ?' ' Yes. 5

1 What do you consider the workmanship of that, comparatively
with any of Lord Elgin's bas-reliefs ?' ' Very inferior.'

Richard Westmacott, Esq., R.A., called in, and examined.
'Are you well acquainted with the Elgin marbles ?' ' Yes.'

EVIDENCE OF CHANTREY AND LAWRENCE 265

' In what class of art do you rate them ?' ' I rate them of the first
class of art.'

' In what rate should you place the Theseus and the River God, as
compared with the Apollo Belvidere and Laocoon ?' 'Infinitely
superior to the Apollo Belvidere.'

1 Which do you prefer the Theseus or the River God ?' ' They are
both so excellent that I cannot readily determine. I should say the
back of the Theseus was the finest thing in the world, and that the
anatomical skill displayed in front of the Ilissus is not surpassed by
any work of art.'

Francis Chantrey, Esq., called in, and examined.

' Are you well acquainted with the Elgin marbles ?' ' I have
frequently visited them.'

' In what class, as to excellence of art, do you place them ?' ' Un-
questionably in the first.'

1 Have you ever looked at this collection with a view towards its
value in money ?' ' I really do not know what to compare them
with.'

' Do you think it of great importance to the art of sculpture that
this collection should become the property of the public?' 'I think
it of the greatest importance in a national point of view.' . . .

Sir Thomas Lawrence, Knt., R.A., called in, and examined.
' Are you well acquainted with the Elgin marbles ?' ' Yes, I am.'
' In what class of art do you consider them ?' ' In the very highest.'
? In your own particular line of art, do you consider them of high
importance as forming a national school?' ' In a line of art which I
have very seldom practised, but which it is still my wish to do, I
consider that they would, namely, historical painting.'

' Do you conceive any of them to be of a higher class than the
Apollo Belvidere ?' ' I do ; because I consider that there is in them
a union of fine composition and very grand form, with a more true
and natural expression of the effect of action upon the human frame
than there is in the Apollo, or in any of the other most celebrated
statues.'

'You have stated that you thought these marbles had great truth
and imitation of nature ; do you consider that that adds to their
value ?' ' It considerably adds to it, because I consider them as united
with grand form. There is in them that variety that is produced in
the human form by the alternate action and repose of the muscles
that strikes one particularly. I have myself a very good collection of
the best casts from the antique statues, and was struck with that

266 NOLLE KENS AND HIS TIMES

difference in them in returning from the Elgin marbles to my own
house.'

Questions sent to the President of the Boyal Academy, his health not
permitting him to attend the Committee, with his answers thereto.

'Are you well acquainted with the Elgin collection?' 'I am,
having drawn the most distinguished of them the size of the original
marbles.'

* In what class of art do you rank the best of these marbles ?' ' In
the first of dignified art, brought out of nature upon uncertain truths,
and not on mechanical principles, to form systematic characters and
systematic art.'

' Do they appear to you the work of the same artists ?' ' One mind
pervades the whole, but not one hand has executed them.'

'As compared with the Apollo Belvidere, the torso of the Bel-
videre, and the Laocoon, how do you estimate the Theseus or
Hercules, and the Eiver God or Ilissus ?' 'The Apollo of the Bel-
videre, the torso, and the Laocoon are systematic art ; the Theseus
and the Ilissus stand supreme in art.'

' Can you compare in money value Lord Elgin's marbles, or any part
of them, with the money value of the Phygalian or Townley col-
lection ?' ' I judge of the Elgin marbles from their purity and pre-
eminence in art over all others I have ever seen, and from their truth
a ad intellectual power ; and I give them the preference to the
Phygalian and Townley collection, most of which is systematic art.'

The generality of my readers will be pleased
with the following anecdote, and it must come
home to every good rider when he mounts a horse.
Shortly after the Elgin marbles w r ere thrown open
to the public indiscriminately, a gentlemanly-
looking person was observed to stand in the middle
of the gallery on one spot for upwards of an hour,
changing his attitude only by turning himself
round ; at last he left the room, but in the course
of two hours he again took his former station,
attended by about a dozen young gentlemen, and
there to them he made nearly the following obser-
vations : ' See, gentlemen, look at the riders all

THE RIDING-MASTER'S CRITICISM 267

round the room,' alluding to the friezes ; \ see how
they sit ; see with what ease and elegance they
ride ; I never saw such men in my life ; they have
no saddles, no stirrups they must have leaped
upon their horses in a grand style. You will do
well to study the position of these noble fellows ;
stay here this morning instead of riding with me,
and I am sure you will seat yourselves better to-
morrow.' I need hardly tell the reader that this
person was a riding-master, and that after he had
been so astonished at the sight of the sculptor's
riders, he brought all his pupils to whom he was
that morning to have given lessons in his riding-
school.

It was highly amusing to notice the glaring
contrast of the two sculptors, Nollekens and Flax-
man, whenever they came in contact in a fashion-
able party, which I own was rarely the case. The
former upon these occasions, who was never known
to expatiate upon art, generally took out his pocket-
book, and, in order to make himself agreeable, pre-
sented his recipes, perhaps for an inveterate sore
throat or a virulent humour, to some elegant woman
with as much alacrity as Dr. Bossy, of Covent
Garden fame, formerly did to the wife of a Fulham
market-gardener.

The latter, however, like a true descendant of
Phidias, was modestly discoursing with a select
circle upon the exquisite productions of Greece, at
the same time assuring his auditors that every
motion of the body of a well-proportioned, unaffected
person gave sufficient opportunities for the selection

268 NOLLEKENS AND HIS TIMES

of similar attitudes o equal grace ; that he con-
sidered himself frequently indebted to the simple
and unadorned charity-girl for the best of his
attitudes, and that these he had often collected
during his walks in the streets, when the innocent
objects themselves had been wholly ignorant of his
admiration of their positions. I have also often
heard him declare that the most successful of his
figures displayed in his illustrations of Homer,
yEschylus, and Dante were procured from similarly
natural and unsophisticated sources. Flaxman, like
Rubens, took infinite delight in his collection of
Italian medals, the best of which he fortunately
procured during his residence at Rome. They were
mostly of the fifteenth century, and were always
estimated by him as the richest treasures in art
that he possibly could possess ; and perhaps no
man of his refined erudition felt or expressed greater
pleasure than he did when he conversed with any
person possessed of sufficient feeling justly to
appreciate their superior merit.

Mr. Samuel Henning, 1 a young artist of promising
abilities as a medallist, asked Flaxman's permission
to take an impression of one or two of these speci-
mens ; upon which the sculptor, with his usual
urbanity, not only instantly complied, but allowed
him to mould a selection which he himself kindly
made for him, and which he considered as the most
interesting and beautiful of his collection. These

1 This should, perhaps, be John Henning, the Scotch medallist
(1771-1851), who produced a laborious restoration of the friezes of the
Parthenon. Ed.

MEDALS 269

consisted of Don Inigo de Davalos, the face of
which person is of low relief, and the features are
expressive of a man of great depth of thought and
a superior mind ; Benedictus Depastis, a medal
which was a great favourite with Flaxman, though
I have frequently seen him laugh at the collops of
fat at the back part of the neck ; Leo Baptista,
Albertus, Victorinus Feltrensis Summus, Sigis-
mondus Pandulfus, Cardinal de Malatestis, Sancta^
Romame Ecclesiae Cardin. Generalis, the hair of
which head differs materially from the preceding
medals, it being singularly cut in a precise straight
line over the forehead.

Few persons are aware of the superior excel-
lencies of these Italian medals, which exceed all
others in point of natural character, the beautiful
productions of Thomas Simon excepted. Many of
them were executed under the glorious auspices of
Leo X. after the designs of Michael Angelo, Cellini,
Baffaelle, Julio Romano, etc., and possess as much
fleshiness as Chantrey's busts.

Vasari, in his valuable work, mentions the names
of the following medallists who flourished in his
time, viz., Miseldone, Mathei de Pastis, Sperandei,
and Villore ; and we find that Vittore Pisano, a
painter of Verona, was highly celebrated as the
chief restorer of this branch of art ; his medals, as
well as those of his contemporaries, were first
modelled in wax, and then cast ; and a catalogue
of his medallic productions is given by Vasari. In
the British Museum there is a brass medal of
Pisano, executed by himself, which is considered as

270 NOLLEKENS AND HIS TIMES

a rarity by collectors, it being one of those which
were carefully worked up with the tool after they
were cast. It displays rather a reserved set of
features, short and close together, the nose of which
inclines to that character commonly called the snub.
His cap, which is an upright one with many folds,
reminded me of that sort usually worn when I
was a boy by the old glass-grinders of the Seven
Dials.

I also remember seeing Smollett's man Strap,
when he was a bookbinder, living near Chelsea Old
Church, in a similar one ; he was afterwards, for
several years before his death, keeper of the lodge
of Buckingham Terrace, Strand, near Inigo Jones's
water-gate, a truly correct engraving of which is
given in Campbell's Vitruvius. In my opinion,
the productions of Pisano 1 are by far the most
spirited, as must unquestionably be the case when-
ever a painter executes a beloved task with his own
hand. The medals by him are equal to pictures, as
they display a fine breadth and a true character of
nature, excellencies which a mere mechanical and
perpetual copyist can never arrive at. How far
more refreshing it is to a person possessing a
moderate share of discernment to see an etching
by Vandyke, with all its foul bitings, where the
markings are firm and square, than an engraving by
Vosterman or Bolswert, where every delineation

1 I do not find Pisano mentioned in any of the dictionaries of
painters, though I concluded Fuseli would have noticed him. Smith.
Vittorio Pisano, called Pisanello, of Verona (1380-1456), the earliest
and most illustrious of the medallists of the Italian Renaissance. Ed.

THE MEDALS OF SIMON 271

is rounded comparatively to a dull, inanimate
smoothness ! How delighted, too, is the eye of
taste with an old impression from the uncon-
taminated needles of Claude, Swaneveldt, Karel
Du Jardin, or Eembrandt ! How the fretful, weak,
and laboured engravings by French artists in the
Poullein, the Praslin, and the Choiseul collections
sink under the comparison when opposed to such
treasures, delivered at once from the painter's mind
and by his own hand !

So likewise it is with the works of Simon, our
own countryman, engraved during the Usurpation ;
that artist drew well, and his reliefs, which are low
and broad, appear more like a fine chiaro-oscuro
painting than sculptured productions. His manner
of treating the hair is beautiful, and perhaps superior
to that of every other medallist ; and nothing can
surpass in that particular the specimens of his
talents displayed in the head of Cromwell on the
largest of the two Dunbar medals, and also that of
Thomas Wriothesley, Earl of Southampton. This
silver medal, which exhibits the Earl in a cap, is
considered one of great rarity ; but the one in
gold, which was purchased of Mr. Young by the
late Barry Roberts, Esq., for the sum of twenty
guineas, now in the British Museum, is looked upon
as unique, not only on account of its being the only
one known in that metal, but also from its variation
from those in silver, the cap having been cut down
so as to exhibit the hair without one, which the
artist has managed in a most tasteful manner. In
the gold impression l Tho. Simon ' is cut under the

272 NOLLEKENS AND HIS TIMES

projection of the shoulder, which is not the case
with those in silver. Of this medal with the cap
there is also a bad copy, an impression of which
may also be seen in the British Museum. It is a
curious fact that, upon comparing the above medal
with the circular one of Oliver Cromwell, inscribed
c Oliverus. Dei. Gra : Keipub : Anglla. Sco. Et.
Hib : &c. Protector. Tho. Simon F.,' the lower parts
of the faces are so like each other that they would
answer for either person.

I am well aware that there are numerous col-
lectors who prefer dies engraven in France, and
particularly the medallions and medals struck in
favour of Napoleon, many of which unquestionably
possess great merit, and are worthy of high ad-
miration ; but, in my opinion, none of them are
equal in mind to those of Italy, produced under
Leo X., nor do they in more than one instance in
point of taste approach the productions of our own
countryman, Thomas Simon.

The one I allude to is that which was struck of
Buonaparte to commemorate the famous battle of
Marengo. In the first state of the die I certainly
esteem this medal as the most beautiful performance
of Andrieu. I was not aware of the superior ex-
cellence of this medal in its first stage of publica-
tion, until an old and worthy friend put me in
possession of impressions in two states, in which
the head differs widely, and which is, I believe, the
only portion of that medal wherein an alteration
has been made. At the time that the battle was
fought Buonaparte was a thin man, and conse-

NAPOLEON I. 273

quently the extraordinary markings of his features
were particularly visible, and, I conclude, accurately
attended to by the medallist. For instance, the
eye, by not being surrounded by much flesh, is
keen and penetrating, the nose and lips are thin,
and, indeed, the whole of his countenance appears
steadfastly determined upon prosecuting his inten-
tions. In the second state of this medal the head
and neck are so considerably enlarged that every
feature is rounded by an increase of flesh as well
as of years. In this state of corpulence Napoleon's
medals were more generally collected by his
adherents, as well as by those who had cabinets
for the reception of such works of art ; and it is
supposed that Andrieu, in order that this Marengo
medal of Buonaparte should be more like him when
Emperor Napoleon, altered the head as we find it
in its second state. He unfortunately, however,
suffered the name of Buonaparte to remain, never
caring for the periodical truth of physiognomy ;
and a distance of a few years made no difference to
him. If an Englishman had been guilty of such a
violation of truth, what would have been said of
him ? and this is a more glaring instance of
anachronism, as Andrieu has placed the counte-
nance of his experienced and fattened hero upon
his youthful shoulders, before he had been bloated
by successful ambition or had gone through half
his depredations.

Mr. Nollekens, during his residence abroad, accu-
mulated numerous coins, mostly the currency of
the countries which he passed through, not with a

18

274 NOLLEKENS AND HIS TIMES

view to their increasing in value, or for their parti-
cular merit, but with the usual idea of a miser who
is fearful of a change in affairs, or what is more
commonly called a revolution in the country, and
who fully relies upon the intrinsic value of gold and
silver. He probably never dreamed of the great
loss sustained by hoarding up foreign money, which
seldom produces more than its weight. Had he
sold his coins, and put the amount out to interest,
he would have increased the principal in the course
of sixty years to at least ten times its original value,
and thereby have saved himself many years' vexa-
tion for the loss of all, which he actually suffered in
consequence of thieves breaking into his house and
stealing all those pieces of gold and silver, together
with Mr. Welch's silver cruet-stand, and other
articles to a considerable amount.

The depredators, having entered the house at the
back-window on the staircase, went at once to the
place where the above articles were deposited, in
the very next room to that in which Mr. and Mrs.
Nollekens were asleep, and let themselves out at
the street-door, without any one of the family being
aware of their visit till the next morning. The
window was then discovered to be open, and the
ladder by which they had ascended from the yard
left to show the way by which they had gained
admittance. It is a curious fact that, in a dirty
book which they had dropped on their way out,
bank-notes were found to a considerable amount by
the person who restored them to Mr. Nollekens,
who, whenever this robbery was mentioned, which

GEMS 275

there was every reason to believe had been com-
mitted by persons connected with one of the
numerous women who stood for his Venuses, ob-
served that ' the rascals took away all my gold and
silver coins, and left me all the copper ones.' These
midnight moneyers also carried off to their melting-
pot, after throwing away the rags in which they
were folded, a few English silver medals of little
value beyond their metallic gravity ; fortunately,
there were no brass sand- moulded Pisanos in danger
in Mortimer Street, such treasures being securely
deposited in the choice cabinets of Flaxman.

Mr. Nollekens now and then amused himself and
a friend or two with his prints, but seldom spoke
of the beauties of ancient bronzes ; and as for ex-
patiating upon the boldness and vigour of a Roman
medal, that with him was quite out of the question.
It is true that he had a collection of gems, impres-
sions mostly taken from the antique, though cer-
tainly made with very little discrimination as to
their superior excellence in point of art in com-
parison with those by his contemporaries Birch,
Merchant, and Tassie ; for he would be as highly
pleased with an inferior imitation of an antique as
with an original of the choicest excellence. In
placing the various subjects in boxes, he never
attended to any kind of classification whatever,
since it was the same thins: to him whether thev
were sacred or profane, and a figure of Eve or a
Susannah was placed with that of a Lucretia or a
Leda. His heads, though they were certainly kept
by themselves, could boast of no better arrange-

276 NOLLEKENS AND HIS TIMES

ment, as that of Hannibal was placed next to one of
Flora. This mode of jumbling of eminent char-
acters together reminded me of Lingo, the school-
master, who, in ' The Agreeable Surprise,' 1 asks
Cowslip, the dairymaid, if she had ever heard of
Homer, Hercules, or Wat Tyler.

His assemblage of plaster-casts from the antique
had experienced very little augmentation since his
departure from Rome, where he had purchased
most of them at a trifling rate from the boys of
Lucca, who at that time exhibited them for sale at
fairs. His studio certainly could not boast of a
vestibule of statues as large as life a most gratify-
ing sight to the sculptor's visitors so beautifully
displayed in the galleries of Chan trey and Westma-
cott but, on the contrary, Nollekens' walls were
principally covered with heads, arms, legs, hands,
and feet, moulded from some of the most celebrated
specimens abroad, together with a few casts of bas-
reliefs of figures, and here and there a piece of foliage
from the Vatican, all of which were hung up with-
out the least reference whatever to each other.

Nollekens paid but little attention to the pro-
ductions of the ancients, though, indeed, I have
seen him finish up the feet of his female figures
from those of the statue of the Venus de Medicis,
the English women, his constant models, having
very bad toes in consequence of their abominable
habit of wearing small and pointed shoes. My

1 ' The Agreeable Surprise ' was a musical farce, by John O'Keefe,.
brought out at The Haymarket in 1781. It was long a great favourite
with the public. Ed.

ARTISTIC HEREDITY 277

worthy friend, Joseph Bonomi, was sure to incur
his displeasure whenever he discovered him study-
ing the antique, and Nollekens would often chide
him for not trusting more to Nature. I am, how-
ever, perfectly convinced that if Nollekens had
looked with more love towards the antique his
Venuses would have been considerably benefited,
particularly in their ankles, which in many instances
are too thick, and certainly remind me of Fuseli's
observation, that ' they were Goltzius' legs.'

We seldom find hereditary succession in art, nor
can I recollect a single instance in which the son of
an eminent painter or sculptor has equalled the
talent of his father ; neither have I been able to
discover in the works of any pupil merit equal to
that of his great master ; and I believe that it will
be found that the artists of the highest genius have
sprung from the lowest schools, or have arisen to
the pinnacle of fame by their own strength of mind
and persevering application.

I do not mean here to insert an extended list of
the bright living instances of a Lawrence, or a
Wilkie, a Chantrey, a Westmacott, a Turner, a
Stothard, a Collins, etc., in support of my position,
but shall principally confine my assertion to other
eminent men who have already quitted this world,
commencing with some of foreign countries and
concluding with those of England. Michael Angelo,
during the time he was with his master Domenico,
corrected one of that artist's drawings to the astonish-
ment of all the schools. The sublime Raffaelle
soon excelled his master, Pietro Perugino ; and

278 NOLLEKEKS AND HIS TIMES

Antonio Correggio owed all his wonderful powers
to Nature, his master, Francesco Bianchi, being but
of slender talent. The instructor of the inimitable
Claude Lorraine, Agostino Tassi, merely taught
him the method of preparing his colours ; whilst
Claude's famous contemporary, Nicolo Poussin, had
for his master Ferdinand Elle and L'Allement, who
were both men of feeble abilities. How much did
Rubens surpass his preceptors, Tobias Yerhaccht,
Adam Van Oort, and Octavio Van Veen ! How
wonderfully did Rembrandt exceed his tutors,
Zwanenburg, Lastman, and Pinas ! Albert Cuyp's
pictures eminently stand before those of his father ;
and how far superior are the pictures of our own
Dobson to the productions of the English artists
who preceded him, for his master was nothing more
than a stationer and a picture -dealer ! The im-
mortal Hogarth was the apprentice of Ellis Gamble,
a silversmith, who employed him to engrave arms
and shop-bills ; and that exquisite landscape-painter,
Richard Wilson, courted Nature alone, under every
variety of aerial tint, and his finest pictures display
all her sparkling sunny freshness after a summer
shower.

Gainsborough was another of Nature's pupils ;
and it might be said of him, as it has been said of
Shakespeare, that he ' warbled his native wood-
notes wild.' The portraits of Sir Joshua Reynolds'
master, Thomas Hudson, would hardly be admitted
into our present minor exhibitions ; and the pictures
painted by the instructor of the late venerable Pre-
sident West, Raffaelle Mengs, sink exceedingly low

ENGRA VERS 279

when they are mentioned with the works of his
pupil. It will also be recollected that Zoffany was
originally only a decorator of clock-dials.

Our three most eminent engravers, too, have
never been equalled in any part of the globe,
though William Woollett's master, Tinney, 1 was so
insignificant an artist that Strutt, in his ' Bio-
graphical Dictionary,' has not thought proper to
give the least account of him ; Sir Robert Strange's
tutor was Cooper, 2 an obscure engraver in Scotland ;
and William Sharp, 3 who has immortalized himself
in his production from Sir Joshua Reynolds' portrait
of John Hunter, was originally an engraver of
the letters upon pewter-pots, dog-collars, door-plates,
visiting-cards, etc., and he assured me that the only
difference he ever had with William Byrne, 4 the
landscape-engraver, was respecting the quantity of
door-plates they had engraved, Sharp insisting upon
his claim to the greatest number by some hundreds.

1 John Tinney, a mezzotint engraver, died in Paris in 1761. Ed.

2 Cooper was the father of Kichard, the drawing-master, who lately-
died at Eltham. The errors into which Mr. Strutt has fallen respecting
the two Coopers will, I doubt not, be entirely rectified by Mr. Ottley
in his ' Dictionary of Engravers,' a work which, in the expectation of
everyone who is acquainted with that gentleman's great accuracy and
most extensive knowledge of the subject, will supersede all others
hitherto published. Smith. This elder Cooper was also Richard.
He died in 1764, and was both engraver and portrait-painter. Ed.

3 Born in 1749, died 1824. He was one of the ardent supporters of
Joanna Southcott. Ed.

4 1743-1805. Ed.

[s8o]

CHAPTEE XII.

Mrs. Nollekens' new drawing-room Caleb Whitefoord's attentions
to Nollekens Cross-readings Goldsmith's ' Retaliation ' White-
foord's letter to his nephew Mrs. Nollekens, her servant, and her
acquaintances Her death and funeral Subsequent conduct of
Mr. Nollekens Mrs. Lloyd and Mrs. Paradice A Garrick play-bill
Mrs. Lloyd's will Her death Eccentricities of Mr. Nollekens
Mr. Barnard's Italian drawings Jernigan's lottery medal Nollekens
and his sitters George III.'s wig The sculptor's family Bat
Pidgeon's shop.

Upon the demise of Miss Welch, 1 Mrs. Nollekens,
her sister, who had been most grievously dis-
appointed in the bequest of her household furniture,
to the great astonishment of her friends, and par-
ticularly of her husband, purchased articles per-
fectly new in order to improve her drawing-room,
which had remained for years as it was originally
fitted up, increasing in nothing but dirt. So great
was the change for the better, that for some time
she only allowed her friends to take a peep in at
the door now and then, while she held it what is
often called ajar. Nor could she think of per-

1 The late Mrs. Lloyd, R.A., informed Mrs. Nichols, her confidential
domestic, that Miss Welch, after her father's death, whilst she was
abroad, frequently travelled as a man, with sword and bag, attended
by a man-servant only. Smith.

CALEB WHITEFOORD 281

mitting even her set visitors to stay the evening in
that room, as the stupid servant had forgotten to
light a fire in it ; so that, after they had been
shown up, they were unavoidably obliged to be
entertained if it might be allowed that her parties
were ever entertained in the parlour with Nolly,
where there had been a comfortable fire constantly
kept up during the whole of the inclement season.

In the summer, in order to let in a little fresh
air, the sashes were thrown up, either to enable her
to appear blowing the chaff from her canary bird's
trough, or watering a delicate sprig or two of
myrtle, which had been kindly presented to her
by Mr. Whitefoord, whose sharp little eyes had
been for some years so closely fixed upon No. 9,
Mortimer Street that he never suffered a week to
pass without inviting them by some small present
to recollect his kind remembrance of them, and by
way of a pretty good instance of his tender anxiety
for the continuance of his dear Nolly's health. By
way of proving my assertion, I here insert a copy
of an endearing epistle shown to me by Nollekens.
This c wine merchant ' and excellent connoisseur in
old pictures had more prudence in sending his
presents to a man enormously rich than to a
fellow- creature whose frame was shivering for the
want of a trifle to procure him a basin of broth and
a night's lodging :

Dear Nolly,

' Here is a fleecy hosiery shirt for you put it on immediately,
and also the breastplate. They will keep you warm and comfortable
during the cold weather keep you free from rheumatism, and pro-
long your life.

282 . NOLLEKENS AND HIS TIMES

4 1 intended to have delivered this myself, but I have not been out
to-day.

' Yours sincerely,

4 C. Whitefoord.
4 "Wednesday evening.'

At this time Caleb was so constant a guardian of
Nollekens' knocker, that no one ventured to cope
with his wit on that sculptor's threshold, for, like
Goldsmith's goose, 1 he stoutly kept up his right to
the pond's side.

4 The pond,' she said, ' was hers, and she would
maintain her right in it and support her honour,
while she had a bill to hiss or a wing to flutter.
In this manner she drove away ducks, pigs, and
chickens nay, even the insidious cat was seen to
scamper.'

Advanced on the journey of life as Nollekens
was, little did this ' cross-reader ' imagine that the
road he was treading was straiter for him, and that
an earlier period was fixed for his own departure
from what most persons are scrambling for the
good things of this life, as they are called by the
worldly traveller. Whitefoord left us, and by his
death, though Nollekens lost his primest of wits,
his high reputation as a stockholder gained him a
host of flatterers, for he was immediately and
constantly assailed by foxes from all quarters ; and
one considered himself sure of the prey, by inviting
him to take a peep at a jackdaw which perched
every morning upon a pretty almond-tree in full
blossom, near to which he himself lay, at a short
distance from the Metropolis.

1 See Goldsmith's * Essay on the Irresolution of Youth.' Smith.

THE GARRICK WIG 283

Whitef oord, who never ventured abroad but with
a full determination to be noticed, dressed himself
foppishly, particularly so in some instances. It is
true he did not upon trivial occasions sport the
strawberry embroidery of Cos way, yet he was
considered extravagantly dashing in a sparkling
black button, which for many years he continued
to display within a loop upon a rosette on his three-
cornered hat, which he was sure to take off when-
ever he considered bowing politically essential.
The wig worn by him for years when he was at the
summit of notoriety had five curls on each side,
and he was one of the last gentlemen who wore the
true Garrick cut. 1

So delighted was Mr. Whitefoord with his
celebrated ' cross-readings,' that he liberally dis-
tributed among his friends specimens of some of the
most whimsical, which he had been at the expense
of printing upon small single sheets. As one of
these trifles, which are now considered rarities, was
preserved by my father, I am enabled to treat the
reader with a few specimens, which may be con-
sidered, by those who are not fond of long digres-
sions, quite enough :

4 Yesterday Dr. Pretymari preached at St. James's
And perform'd it with ease in less than sixteen minutes.'

1 The sword of state was carried
Before Sir John Fielding, and committed to Newgate.'

1 This peculiar wig, with five curls on each side, was brought into
fashion by David Garrick, and its cut is precisely engraven by
Sherwin in his portrait of the actor done for Davies' Memoirs.
Smith.

284 NOLLE KENS AND HLS TIMES

' Several changes are talked of at Court
Consisting of 9,050 triple bob-majors.'

' Removed to Marylebone, for the benefit of the air
The City and Liberties of Westminster.'

' We hear a treaty of marriage is concluded
For 50 a side, between the noted Dyer and the famous Naylor.'

1 Sunday night many noble families were alarmed
By the constable of the watch, who apprehended them at cards.'

An assertion has been credited by many persons
that Goldsmith was not the author of the postscript
now printed with his poem entitled ' Retaliation,'
but that it was written by Caleb Whitefoord, whom
it celebrates, and w^ho now and then endeavoured
to imitate his manner. It may be true that the
lines were conveyed to the editor of the fifth
edition 1 by one of their mutual friends, and that
they were not produced before the Doctor's death ;
but certainly the length of praise bestowed upon
Whitefoord in the postscript has been considered
unconscionably long as w r ell as uncommonly great,
especially for a man whose qualifications could
never rank him with Burke or Reynolds. The
author of l Retaliation,' however, thought proper
to confine his praise of those immortal men to a
considerably less number than eighteen lines.

The late Charles Smith, 2 painter to the Great

1 This edition is of 1774. The additional lines were accompanied
by an anonymous letter, purporting to authenticate them. Curiously
enough, although Whitefoord lived on till 1810, no further light was
ever thrown on the subject, and in all probability he forged both lines
and letter. Ed.

a Born in 1749, he went to India in 1793, returned three years
later, and died in 1824. Ed.

CALEB WHITEFOORD 285

Mogul, favoured me, through my worthy friend,
Thomas Gilliland, Esq., author of the celebrated
pamphlet of l Diamond cut Diamond,' and, I believe,
about sixteen or seventeen others in defence and
support of the English Government, with a letter
which he received from his uncle, Caleb White-
f oord, who was particularly anxious to witness his
nephew's advancement ; and as it is in some
instances connected with the arts, I shall here
introduce a copy of it, leaving out two or three
paragraphs of a private family nature :

'Dear Charles,

'I have intended to write to you for several days past, but
have delayed it in expectation of a frank, which I have got at last.

'I received your Nymph with the Infant Bacchus and a Satyr,
which I think a very pretty picture. I also asked some Royal
Academicians to view it, viz., Northcote, Cos way, etc., who approved
of it much ; it is well composed, and beautifully coloured ; but the
hangmen at the Exhibition have not hung it in a conspicuous situa-
tion ; it is placed in the ante-room, and pretty high ; but they have
done the same with two very pretty pictures of the President himself,
so you must not complain. ... I have been proceeding in my canvas
for the Associateship, and have great hopes of success indeed, it is a
thing I have much at heart, for I wish much to see you a Royal
Academician. Sir Joshua's pictures are not to be sold this year ; but
in a few days Sir Thomas Dundas's collection is to come under Green-
wood's hammer. What a pity it is that we are not rich !

'I am now completing the arrangement of the Octagon Room ; x but

1 This Octagon Room, with an upper light, one of a suite in the
Adelphi, built purposely for him by his friend Adam, was considered
by Mr. Christie of so excellent a shape for the exhibition of pictures
that he adopted it when he fitted up his great room in King Street,
St. James's Square ; so that all pictures consigned to him for public
sale are sure of receiving an equally good light. The advantage
derived from the octagonal shape is that pictures are not continued
up to the corners, as they most commonly are in a square room, where
it is impossible to stand to view them to that advantage under which

286 NOLLEKENS AND HIS TIMES

my Correggio is too fine to hang up. It is put into a handsome
mahogany case, and kept under lock and key.

'Mr. Barry has been to see it, and declares it to be the most
capital picture he had ever beheld ; and I bought it at a public sale
for 9 9s.

1 1 am, with compliments to Sir John, 1

' Dear Charles, yours, etc.,

*C. Whitefoord.

' Since your worship has been gone, I have taken mightily to the
young kitten ; she is a very clever kit-cat, and I have taken some pains
about her education ; she skips about like a monkey, and sits up like a
Christian.'

In closing these notices of Mrs. Nollekens, I
must not forget to mention her servant, Mary
Fairy. Her features, though tolerably handsome,
were not equal to her figure her arms were
excellent ; but it is pretty well known that her
master was rather afraid of her, since she scolded
him as well as Mrs. Nollekens, and, indeed, was
frequently so rude to his visitors that her conduct
appeared more like an overbearing mistress of a
mansion than a dependent. Mr. Joseph, an associate
of the Royal Academy, when painting the portrait
of the Hon. Mr. Perceval from Mr. Nollekens'
mask, taken from that gentleman's face after
death, happened once to mention Mary Fairy in the

they are seen when the corners of a square are brought out to form
the octagon. Smith.

1 Sir John Macpherson, who had been Governor of Bengal, and to
whom Charles Smith dedicated a musical entertainment in two acts,
entitled 'A Trip to Bengal,' to which a portrait of the author is pre-
fixed, engraved by S. W. Reynolds from a picture painted by himself.
This entertainment, consisting of fifty-two pages, was printed in 1 802
for J. Ridgway, and Black and Parry, London. At the end is a
Glossary of Hindostanee words used in the work. Smith.

FIFING-BOYS 287

presence of Mrs. Nollekens, who, with her pre-
cision of emphasis, said, ' Yes, sir ; she is Mr.
Nollekens' Venus, sir.' Mrs. Nollekens was at this
time recollecting, with tears in her eyes, that she
had herself in former days been flattered with that
appellation from no less a character than the
Marquis of ^Rockingham, who observed to Mr.
Nollekens, soon after his marriage: ' Ah, Nolle-
kens, we now see where you get your Venuses!'

One morning, when a fifer and drummer were
row-de-dowing to a newly-married couple at the
Sun and Horseshoe at the opposite house to
Nollekens', she observed that her father, Mr.
Welch, used to say that fifing-boys were first
introduced in the army by the Culloden Duke of
Cumberland. I do not recollect an earlier repre-
sentation of a fifing-boy than that introduced by
Hogarth in his picture of the ' March to Finchley.'

Mrs. Nollekens' female acquaintances were not
all equally well or wisely selected, some of them
having been opera-singers, and others servants to
their husbands, or in some instances worse. Upon
this egregious want of common decorum, her late
steady, amiable, and universally-respected friend,
Mrs. Carter, would now and then rate her roundly,
particularly when she perceived her to pay in-
creasing attention to ladies for whom the world
never cared, nor even spoke to till after their

marriage.

* You can clearly see,' she observed one day
during a sale of choice china at Christie's, 'that
duck-footed woman, your " dear friend," as you

288 NOLLEKENS AND HIS TIMES

have just been pleased to call her, is not at all
noticed by the wives of those gentlemen to whom
her husband is known. They all shun her as they
would a wife who had been made over to her
husband with what her former possessor considered
a handsome consideration. Indeed, my old friend,
you should at all events be a little more cautious in
your epithets, or you will at last, like her, pass
unnoticed.' The truth was, that Mrs. Carter
began to perceive that whenever persons of rank
noticed Mrs. Nollekens, it was only with the
distant condescension of, ' I hope Mr. Nollekens is
well ?'

Having given the reader a sufficient number of
anecdotes concerning the manners and peculiarities
of Mrs. Nollekens, the Pekuah 1 of Dr. Johnson's
' Rasselas,' who will always retain a lasting seat
among my most pleasant recollections, I come now
to speak of her death, long previously to which her
emaciated frame had existed without the use of its
limbs. She was at length relieved from her suffer-
ings in the drawing-room of her husband's house,
No. 9, Mortimer Street, on August 17, 1817, in
the seventy -fourth year of her age, and was interred
in the public vault under Paddington Church, on

1 A short time before Mrs. Nollekens' death a gentleman, in looking
round Nollekens' studio, inquired after her health, observing that he
had not seen her for some time. ' Oh !' answered the artist, ' she's
bad, very bad ; she's now in bed. There's a mould of her spine down
in that corner ; see how crooked it is.' Little did Pekuah think, when
her elegantly-formed figure was attired in her wedding-dress, that her
admiring husband would one day display a cast of her deformed spine.
Smith.

FUNERAL OF MRS. NOLLEKENS 289

the 25th of the same month. The funeral was
handsome. There were eleven mourners, namely,
Mr. Nollekens, and Mr. Peck of the Temple (one
of his two cousins), Mr. Woodcock (one of Mrs.
Nollekens' cousins), Mr. John Taylor (Frank Hay-
man's only surviving pupil), Mr. Joseph Bonomi
(Mr. Nollekens' pupil), Mr. Gahagan (one of his
principal carvers), etc.

Mrs. Nollekens, who was fond of using lofty
sentences, even upon the most trifling occasions, in
her will styled her husband ' The sun of my life.'
Upon this expression a literary man, who at that
time was slightly known to Mr. Nollekens, passed
many compliments ; though, as a reader, he might
have known that the idea was borrowed from old
Fuller, who says, when speaking of a female who
had been kind to him in sickness, ' She was the
medicine of my life.'

Upon the death of Mrs. Nollekens, her husband,
who had received the condolence of Mrs. Zoffany,
Mrs. Lloyd, and other steady old friends, conducted
himself with all possible dolefulness and customary
propriety, pacing his room up and down with his
hands in his pockets, and for a time, I really
believe, felt the want of her company, deplorable
as it had been for the last three years. However,
many ladies stoutly maintain an opinion that very
few gentlemen die of grief for their departed wives ;
and that short and not very distant removals to a
lively prospect where new faces may be seen
generally bring about a change in the worldly
affairs of men. And as if he had been for too

19

290 NOLLEKENS AND HIS TIMES

long a time what is usually denominated ' hen-
pecked,' Mr. Nollekens soon sported two mould-
candles instead of one, took wine oftener, sat up
later, laid in bed longer, and would, though he
made no change whatever in his coarse manner of
feeding, frequently ask his morning visitor to dine
with him ; and I have been informed that the late
Rev. Thomas Kerrich, principal librarian of the
University Library of Cambridge, to my very great
astonishment, had stomach enough to partake of
one of his repasts. As for my part, his viands were
so dirtily cooked with half -melted butter, mountains
high of flour, and his habits of eating so filthy, that
he never could prevail upon me to sicken myself at
any one of his feasts.

He continued now and then to amuse himself
with his modelling-clay, and frequently gave tea
and other entertainments to some one of his old
models, who generally left his house a bank-note or
two richer than they arrived. Indeed, so stupidly
childish was he at times, that one of his Venuses,
who had grown old in her practices, coaxed him
out of 10 to enable her to make him a plum-
pudding ; and he grew so luxuriantly brilliant in
his ideas of morning pleasures, that he would fre-
quently, on a Sunday particularly, order a hackney-
coach to be sent for, and take Taylor, Bonomi,
Goblet, and sometimes his neighbour, the publican's
wife from the Sun and Horseshoe, a ride out of
town of about ten or twelve miles before dinner.
Now and then, however, in consequence of his
neglecting his former cautious custom of bargaining

SERVANTS 291

for the fare before he started, he had a dispute with
the coachman on his return as to the exact distance,
to the no small amusement of Bronze and his brawny
old Scotch nurse, a woman whose blotchy skin and
dirty habits even Nollekens declared to be most
obnoxious to his feelings, and wretchedly nasty in
her mode of dressing his victuals.

I must freely declare that in some respects Nolle-
kens, aged as he was, attempted to practise the
usual method of renovation of some of that species
of widowers who have not the least inclination
whatever to follow their wives too hastily. Mrs.
Nollekens had left him with his handsome maid,
who became possessed of her mistress's wardrobe,
which she quickly sold and cut up to her advantage.
Her common name of Mary soon received the adjunct
of Pretty from her kind master himself, who seldom
took the liberty of addressing her without it. As
it soon appeared, however, that ' pretty Mary,' who
had an eye to her master's disengaged hand, took
upon herself mightily, and used her master rather
roughly, she was one day very properly, though
unceremoniously, put out of the house before her
schemes were brought to perfection.

I must not, however, quit Mrs. Nollekens without
mentioning some circumstances of her survivor,
Mrs. Lloyd. She now and then gave the retort-
courteous to Mrs. Paradice, a woman she detested,
and who once allowed her passion to overpower her
good sense, of which in general she had a pretty
good share ; which overflowing of her gall took
place at Mrs. Nollekens' table when Dr. Johnson

292 NOLLE KENS AND HIS TIMES

was present. Mrs. Paradice's figure was so neat
and small that Mrs. Lloyd called her a sylph.
' Better to be so,' rejoined Mrs. P., ' than to be as
dull-looking and blind as a mole.' c Mole as I am,'
said Mrs. Lloyd, f I never added to the weight of
Paul Jodrell's phaeton.' ' Fie ! fie ! my dears,' ex-
claimed the Doctor, ' no sparring ; off with your
mufflers, and fight it fairly out !'

At this time Miss Welch, who communicated
this anecdote to me, frowned at Mrs. Nollekens for
suffering her house to be made the seat of discord ;
and that lady particularly requested Mrs. Paradice,
for whom she entertained no high respect, to
suspend the altercation, adding that such remarks
were not altogether ladylike. Mrs. Lloyd, though
she was pretty honest in what she at any time said,
continued to bear no ill-will towards her little
antagonist, as will appear by the following extract
of a letter which she wrote to Mr. West in 1805 :

' I am glad that our old acquaintance, Mrs. Paradice, got safe to
America. Although she and I used to say unkind things sometimes
to each other, I should have been sorry any harm had happened to her,
as I think she has many worthy qualities ; in consideration of which,
when she is out of my sight I like her very well, and can think of her
with commiseration.'

Mrs. Lloyd was so near-sighted that her nose,
when she was painting, was within an inch of the
canvas ; and it is astonishing, with such an in-
firmity, about Which Mrs. Paradice exposed herself
by ignorantly comparing her to a mole, that she
could display such harmony in her performances.
Her pictures of flowers, for which she was so
deservedly famed, possess a tasteful elegance of

ONE OF GARRICK'S PLAYBILLS 293

composition, a clearness of colouring, and, in most
instances, exquisite finishing. She was remarkably
choice in the colour she used, preferring ultramarine
upon all occasions wherever blue was required.
My worthy friend Mr. Sharp, 1 the painter of ' The
King, God bless him !' purchased Mrs. Lloyd's
colour-box, in which he found a curious colour
twisted up in one of Garrick's playbills, which,
with his usual good-nature, he gave to me. This
bill is valuable for more points than one, as the
play which it announced was to be performed on
May 7 for the benefit of the poor debtors in the
Marshalsea Prison ; and as it has been considered a
great curiosity by many of the numerous playbill
collectors to whom it has been shown, I shall here
insert a copy of it.

FOE THE BENEFIT OF THE PEISONEES

Confined for Debt in the Marshalsea Prison, Southwark.

(Being their first application of this kind.)

Theatre Royal, in Drury Lane,

On Monday next, being the 7th of May,

Will be presented a Comedy, called,

THE PEOVOKED WIFE.

The part of Sir John Brute to be performed

by Mr. GARRICK.

Constant, by Mr. Havard.

Heartfree, by Mr. Palmer.

Col. Bully (with proper Songs), by Mr. Beard.

Razor, by Mr. Yates.

Lord Rake, by Mr. Blakes.'

Lady Fanciful, by Mrs. Clive.

Belinda, by Mrs. Willoughby.

Mademoiselle, by Mrs. Green.

1 Michael William Sharp, a painter of jocose and social pictures.
He survived until 1840. Ed.

294 NOLLEKENS AND HIS TIMES

And the part of Lady Brute, to be performed by

Mrs. Pritchard.

With Dancing,

By Mons. Grandchamps, Mad. Auretti, Mr. Mathews, &c.

To which will be added a Farce, called,

DUKE AND NO DUKE.

The part of Trappolin to be performed
by Mr. WOODWARD.
Boxes 5s. Pit 3s. First Gallery 2s. Upper Gallery Is.
Tickets to be had at the Marshalsea Prison, Southwark, and of Mr.
Hobson, at the Stage-door, of whom places may be taken.

On Tuesday next, Loves Last Shift. For the Benefit of Mr. Dunbar,
Mr. Jones, Mr. Atkinson, Mr. Priehard, and Mr. Bride.

Mrs. Mary Lloyd leaving a will which she wrote
herself, and in which appear the names both of
Mr. and Mrs. Nollekens, Mrs. Benjamin West, with
her usual kindness, has enabled me to lay the
following copy before the reader :

1 Written in the year one thousand eight hundred and one.

' This is the last Will and Testament of me, Mary Lloyd, widow of
the late Hugh Lloyd, Esq. I am now residing in John Street, in the
Parish of St. Pancras, in the County of Middlesex. First, I direct
that all my just debts, funeral expenses, and the charges of the
Probate of this my Will, shall be paid by my Executors hereinafter
named. I give and bequeath unto Joseph Nollekens, Esq., of Mortimer
Street, and Joseph Moser, Esq., of Princes Street, Spitalfields, and
the survivor, and the executors, administrators, or assigns of such
survivor, all my money in the public funds called the Long Annuities,
upon trust that they the said Joseph Nollekens and the said Joseph
Moser, or the survivor of them, or the executors, administrators, or
assigns of such survivor of them, shall and do, during the natural life
of my cousin Elizabeth Graham, wife of John Graham, pay and apply
out of the interest or dividends in the Long Annuities, forty pounds
every year to her use ; and I direct that the said Elizabeth Graham
shall receive the dividends herself at the Bank ; and I direct that the
said Elizabeth receive the forty pounds a year free and clear of and
from all tax, charge, and deductions whatever ; and after the decease
of the aforesaid Elizabeth Graham, I direct that the eight hundred

MRS. LLOYD'S WILL 295

pounds, from which the dividends of forty pounds were paid, shall be
divided amongst the children of the said Elizabeth in equal shares, if
she should not make a will ; but if she should make a will in favour
of any child or children, the eight hundred pounds, after her decease,
shall be divided according to such will ; but the money must not be
willed by the said Elizabeth Graham to any person or persons except
her children, unless she should survive them all ; in that case she may
give the eight hundred pounds to whom she pleases after her decease ;
and I direct that the said Elizabeth Graham shall not make over to
any one person or persons the beforenamed dividends of forty pounds
per year, but always receive the interest herself of the eight hundred
pounds. I give and bequeath to my dear friend Mary Nollekens, the
wife of Joseph Nollekens, fifty pounds, to be transferred to her out
of the Long Annuities. I give and bequeath to Juliet Moser, the wife
of Joseph Moser, fifty pounds, to be transferred to her out of the
Long Annuities. I give and bequeath to John Graham, husband of
Elizabeth Graham, fifty pounds, to be transferred to him out of the
Long Annuities. I give and bequeath to Conradt Habbick, of Schaf-
hausen, the nephew of my father George Michel Moser, twenty guineas ;
if he should be dead, the money to be divided among my executors.
I give and bequeath to my cousin Rachel Schewier, the wife of Jacques
Schewier, late residing at Neuwied, twenty guineas. If the said Rachel
Schewier should be dead, I direct the twenty guineas to be paid to her
son ; if he should be dead, I give it to my executors. I give and
bequeath to Elizabeth West, wife of Benjamin West, Esq., fifty
pounds, to be transferred to her out of the Long Annuities. I give
and bequeath to George Panbury the Elder, twenty guineas. I give
my silver teapot, and my silver caddy, and silver milk-ewer, to Char-
lotte Harward, the wife of Charles Harward, Esq., with my best
wishes for her prosperity. I give and bequeath to Maria Cosway, the
wife of Richard Cosway, twenty guineas for a ring. I desire that my
drawings, prints, and books of prints, may be divided between Benjamin
West, Esq., and Joseph Nollekens, Esq., and that they may make them
into two parcels, and draw lots for them. I desire that Richard
Cosway, Esq., may choose any three pictures he pleases. I give to
Francis Ellis, daughter of Hugh Ellis, Esq., of Carnarvon, my ring
with my late husband's hair ; it is set round with diamonds ; and
twenty guineas. To the servant who lives with me at the time of
my death I give ten pounds.

' The residue of my fortune of every kind I give to my cousin
Joseph Moser, Esq.

' As I have written the above with my own hand, I am informed

296 NOLLEKENS AND HIS TIMES

a witness is not required ; and I do constitute, nominate, and appoint

the aforesaid Joseph Nollekens and Joseph Moser executors of this

my last will.

'Mary Lloyd,

22nd Aug., 1801.

' I request to be buried in the same grave with my late husband,
Hugh Lloyd, Esq., if I should die in this country.

'Mary Lloyd.' 1

Mrs. Lloyd, who was much respected by the
Eoyal Family, was visited by the late Queen
Charlotte, and had also the honour to receive the
following letter from her Royal Highness the
Princess Elizabeth :

'My dear Mrs. Lloyd,

' To show you that though out of sii?ht you are not out of
mind, I send you a very quiet, sober-coloured gown, to show you that
you have a sincere and old friend in

'Eliza. 2
'Jan. 20th.'

Mrs. Lloyd died at ten o'clock on Sunday
morning, May 2, 1819, in the front second -floor
room of her lodgings, No. 21, Upper Thornhaugh
Street, Tottenham Court Road, and was buried on
the 10th of the same month at Kensington, in the
grave of her husband, according to her request.

Mr. Nollekens was not very particular as to the
material he used to render his skin clean. When-
ever he had been modelling, a small bit of clay
commonly answered the purpose, and, after shaving,

1 Mrs. Lloyd, when Miss Moser, obtained the following premiums
from the Society of Arts :

In 1758, for a drawing, 5 5s.

In 1759, for a ditto, 5 5s. Smith.

2 The original is in the possession of Mrs. Nichols, who kindly
permitted me to copy it. Smith.

SNUFF 297

the barber's cloth, upon which a variety of customers
had already wiped themselves, was considered both
convenient and economical.

He took snuff, but seldom used his handkerchief ;
and the custom of the common drovers was too
often practised by him to render the assistance of
that truly cleanly article necessary upon all
occasions. By long experience he was convinced
that employing the common shoe-cleaner was by
far the cheapest mode, for that by standing over
him when he was putting on the blacking to the
brush he had a pennyworth for his halfpenny, so
that when he wanted to go out two days running,
the quantity of blacking enabled him, with a little
moisture applied to his own shiner, to make them
do. He chewed tobacco, it mattered not to him
whether shag or pigtail ; and for the most part his
supply was gratuitous by his sawyer or his polisher,
who both kept in his good opinion by continuing
the habit of chewing it, and they both were equally
eager to allow their polished iron-box to shine in
the sun whenever he came to converse with them,
upon either the clearness or softness of the stone
upon which they were engaged.

Snuff was a luxury he at all times expected to
find in the studio, and was highly pleased that the
generality of its takers preferred rappee, and also
that they confined their custom to the same shop
Simpson's, in Princes Street as the varieties of
manufacture were apt to render his nose sore. But
it was very remarkable that at one time, when he
was an extensive snuff-taker, he would put up with

298 NOLLEKENS AND HIS TIMES

an early pinch of Scotch from a North Briton, who
industriously made seven days in the week by
attending an hour earlier and staying an hour later
than the rest of his workmen. Nollekens certainly
kept a box, but then if was very often in his other
coat-pocket, an apology frequently made when he
partook of that refreshment at the expense of
another.

If any one of his labourers found a feather and
tied it to the string of the oil-bottle, to enable
Nollekens to oil the locks, bars, bolts, and hinges
of the doors, without wasting the oil upon a worn-
out quill, he was delighted beyond measure. The
man who put it there was sure to be questioned as
to the place he found it in ; and if he happened to
say Oxford Market, Nollekens exulted upon re-
flecting that he stood some chance of having his
sixpennyworth for the money the butchers exacted
of him for exhibiting to him their house of snow.

Nollekens had no wish to visit those gardens of
Damascus at Kensington, shaded by lofty trees and
adorned by fragrant shrubs, under whose refreshing
shades he might have enjoyed the cooling breezes
from the waters. The place in which he most
delighted was Primrose Hill, where he was to be
seen in the summer season, either fagging up or
running down its heated declivities, almost destitute
of even bramble or brier. Often have I been nearlv
scorched to death when walking with him, as he
invariably gave preference to the sunny side of the
street, while his dog Cerberus, by way of a treat,
walked in the shade.

HENRY JERNIGAN 299

John Barnard, Esq., nicknamed Jacky Barnard,
who was very fond of showing his collection of
Italian drawings, expressed surprise that Mr.
Nollekens did not pay a sufficient attention to them.
' Yes I do,' replied he ; ' but I saw many of them
at Jenkins's, at Rome, while the man was making
them for my friend Crone, the artist, one of yonr
agents.' This so offended Mr. Barnard, who piqned
himself upon his judgment, that he scratched
Nollekens out of his will.

Walking with Mr. Nollekens to see Mr. Grignon's
pictures, consigned to him from Rome by his
brother Charles, just as we were going up to his
door, No. 10, Great Russell Street, Covent Garden,
Mr. Nollekens regretted that he had left home
without putting the Jernigan medal into his pocket,
as Mr. Grignon had promised to give him some
account of it.

What information Mr. Nollekens obtained I
know not ; but I find that in one of Mr. Grignon's
interesting letters to me upon my Covent Garden
collections, he mentions it in the following words :

'Henry Jernigan was a silversmith and Roman Catholic banker,
residing in London, and had offices in Jermyn Street and Great
Russell Street, and in the house in which I now reside. He had
a lottery for jewellery which he could not dispose of, 1 and to
those persons who were unfortunate he presented medals. The
number of his tickets amounted to 30,000, at seven or ten shillings
each.'

Jernigan died October 8, 1761, was buried in the
churchyard of St. Paul, Covent Garden, and upon

1 A large cistern of silver was the grand prize. Smith.

300 NOLLEKENS AND HIS TIMES

his tombstone are the following lines by Aaron
Hill:

' All that accomplished body lends mankind,
From earth receiving, he to earth resign'd.
All that e'er graced a soul, from Heaven he drew,
And took back with him, as an angel's due.'

' Yon must sometimes be much annoyed,' observed
a lady, addressing herself to Mr. Nollekens, c by
the ridiculous remarks made by your sitters and
their flattering friends after you have produced a
good likeness.' ' No, ma'am, I never allow any-
body to fret me. I tell 'em all, " If you don't like
it, don't take it." This may be done by an artist
who is what is usually termed ' tiled in ' ; but the
dependent man is sometimes known to submit to
observations, as the witty Northcote has stated,
even from 4 nursery-maids, both wet and dry.'
This observation occurs in a paper addressed to
Prince Hoare, dated June 20, 1807, in an enter-
taining work edited by that gentleman, entitled
' The Artist.'

Notwithstanding the professed independence of
Nollekens, however, he not unfrequently has been
known to appear to comply with the wishes of his
employers, who in most instances consider they
have an unequivocal right to maintain their ignorant
opinions for articles bespoken by them, and for
which they are to give cheques ; and so they cer-
tainly have, if they confine their observations to
their household furniture. But I must declare
that persons of real taste and good sense are at all
times better pleased with a work x>f art that has

NOLLEKENS 1 HABITS 301

emanated entirely from the mind of a talented man,
who has deeply studied his subject. Nollekens, I
was about to observe, at times, like many other
sculptors, played off the old practice by pretending
to cut away whenever the employer pronounced a
lip too pouting, an eye too crow-footed, or a brow
too severe. This deception of cutting away is
effected by the help of a little stone-dust, which the
sculptor allows to fall gradually from his hand
every time he strikes his chisel or moves his rasp,
until the critic cries, c Stop, stop ! don't cut away
too much ; that will do admirably well. Now,
don't you see, my dear sir, how wonderfully that
has improved it ?'

Nollekens observed one morning, after he had
attended Sir Joshua's lecture at the Royal Academy
the preceding evening, that he believed all the
deformed students in the Academy had assembled
together upon one spot while waiting the open-
ing of the lecture-room, since he had noticed
Eyley, Flaxman, the two Edwards, Crone, and
Feary.

Whenever Nollekens was asked in the presence
of his wife if he had any family, she would answer,
pointing to his figures, ' A very great family, sir.
All these are Mr. Nollekens' children ; and as they
behave so well, and never make a noise, they shall
be his representatives,' at the same time making a
most formal curtsey to Mr. Nollekens.

He seldom wrote long letters : Lady Newborough
was one of the most favoured of this friends. To
her he wrote Jong epistles ; and so ' unbosomed

NOLLEKENS AND HIS TIMES

himself,' as he called it, by offering his advice about
her domestic concerns, that she was pleased, when
she wrote in reply, to call him her father.

At the commencement of the French Revolution,
when such immense numbers of priests threw them-
selves upon the hospitality of this country, Nolle -
kens was highly indignant at the great quantity of
bread they consumed. ' Why, do you know, now,'
said he, ' there's one of 'em living next door but
one to me that eats two whole quartern loaves a
day to his own share ! and I am sure the fellow's
body could not be bigger if he was to eat up his
blanket.'

Whenever Nollekens crossed the water he always
carried the money the waterman was to have for
his fare in his mouth : he kept it between his teeth,
not in imitation of Egyptian mummies, whose
mouths held a piece of gold to pay old Charon his
fare, but in order that he might not, in getting out
of the boat, lose his money by taking more out than
he wanted.

He never suffered his tenants to remain long after
their rents were due without reminding them how
matters stood ; and when he applied by letters, he
stated that a quarter's rent was due on November 10
last, for which he requested payment to be made
on or before Thursday next, by twelve o'clock at
noon, having occasion for a sum of money. Of
late years, however, in consequence of his having
so many houses, he employed an agent to collect
for him, so that, at all events, his bodily fatigue
was lessened.

ECCENTRICITIES 303

Mr. Browne, 1 one of Nollekens' old friends, after
having received repeated invitations to l step in and
take pot-luck with him,' one day took him at his
word. The sculptor apologized for his entertain-
ment by saying that, as it was Friday, Mrs. Nolle -
kens had proposed to take fish with him, so that
they had bought a few sprats, of which he was
wiping some in a dish, whilst she was turning others
on the gridiron.

One day, when Mr. Nollekens was walking in
Cavendish Square, attended by his man Dodimy,
he desired him to take up some sop which a boy
had just thrown out of a beer-pot, observing that it
would make a nice dinner for his dog Cerberus.
c Lord, sir ! I take it up !' exclaimed Dodimy.
1 What, in the sight of your friends, Lord Bes[s]-
borough and Lord Brownlow ? See, sir, there's
Mr. Shee looking down at you. No, sir, I would
not do it if you were even to scratch me !' When-
ever Dodimy displeased his master he commonly
threatened to scratch him, meaning out of his
will, which he finally did, and gave his intended
annuity of 30 to his principal assistant, Mr. Gob-
let, as the long promised provision for himself and
family !

As I have given so many instances of the mean-
ness of the wealthy sculptor, I should feel very con-
siderable regret if I omitted to record any act of
his which bears the least appearance of liberality ;

1 The late Mr. Browne was father to George Howe Browne, Esq.,
the highly -respected Secretary to the Westminster Fire -Office.
Smith.

3 o4 NOLLEKENS AND HIS TIMES

and it gives me pleasure to say that I have been
assured by Mr. Turner, the Eoyal Academician,
that when he solicited Mr. Nollekens for his sub-
scription to the Artists' Fund, he inquired how
much he wanted from him. c Only a guinea,' was
the answer ; upon which the sculptor immediately
opened a table -drawer and gave Mr. Turner thirty
guineas, saying, c There, take that.' Mr. Bailey, 1
the Royal Academician, was also equally surprised
when he applied to him on behalf of the Artists'
Society, to which he is a subscriber. And yet this
man was continually exercising his thoughts to
devise the cheapest meal he could possibly take ;
and has been seen disputing with a half-starved
and slipshod cobbler because he refused to put a
few more nails in his ^hoes, having entered into an
agreement to pay him the sum of twopence for their
mending !

As a piece of topographical gossip relative to an
old house, the fame of which has been perpetuated
in the Spectator, I shall close the present chapter
with the following information touching the re-
nowned shop of Bat Pidgeon.

Mr. Nollekens informed me that his mother took
her children to have their hair cut at the Three
Pigeons, in the Strand ; and having heard my
friend Mr. Sheldrake state that that shop had been
the one formerly kept by the famous Bat Pidgeon,
I begged of him to favour me with what he knew

1 Edward Hodges Bailey, the sculptor (1788-1867), a pupil and
imitator of Flaxman. Ed.

BAT PIDGEON 305

about it, and the following letter is the result of
my inquiry :

1 January 18, 1823.
'Dear Sir,

' I well remember Bat Pidgeon's house in the Strand ; it was
nearly opposite Norfolk Street. It bore a sign of Three Pigeons,
underneath which was written, "Bat Pidgeon"; beneath which was
another inscription, "late Bat Pidgeon."

'Since our conversation I have examined the spot; the original
brickwork of the house is there, but the shop-front has been
modernized. The house is now numbered 277, and is inhabited by
Mr. Wilson, manufacturer of ornamental bair, etc. I talked with Mr.
Wilson, who has no knowledge of his ancestors, if I may so call them,
but said he well knows that his house bore the sign of " The Three
Pigeons." I remember them and the inscriptions many years of my
early life, long after the year 1770, but I cannot recollect the names
of Bat's successors.

'I enclose Mr. Wilson's card, which will lead you to the house.
'I am, dear Sir,

1 Yours sincerely,

' T. Sheldrake.
'J. T. Smith, Esq.'

20

[306]

CHAPTER XIII.

Mr. Nollekens' confessor Description of the sculptor's house, paint-
ings, etc. His indifference towards religion and sacred subjects in
art Decoration of churches and exhibition of Westminster Abbey
Mr. Nollekens and Sir William Staines Anecdotes of Biagio
Rebecca The Pond family Anthony Pasquin Canal excursions
Mrs. Lobb and living models Mr. Nollekens' visit to the British
Museum Recollections of his manners, etc. Eccentricity in persons
of eminent talent The advantages of greatness Mr. Nollekens and
his patrons and visitors.

Mr. Nollekens was in possession of a set of those
extremely rare engravings from the Aretin subjects,
so often mentioned by print-collectors ; but it so
happened, as he was glancing at them one day, that
his confessor came in, who insisted upon their being
put into the fire before he would give him absolu-
tion. I once saw them, and he lent them to Cos way
to make tracings from them. However, this loan
Cos way stoutly denied, which when Nollekens
heard, he exclaimed : ' He's a damned liar ; that
everybody knows ! And I know this, that I could
hardly get them back again out of his hands.'
Upon Nollekens being asked how he, as an artist,
could make up his mind to burn them, he answered,
c The priest made me do it ;' and he was now and
then seen to shed tears for what he called his folly.

BRONZE AND HER KITCHEN 307

He was frequently questioned thus : ' Where did you
get them, sir ? Whose were they ?' His answer
was : c I brought them all the way from Rome.'

The rigid economy and eccentricity of Mr.
Nollekens were scarcely more remarkable in his
person and manners than in his dwelling, of which
I shall now give the reader a short description.
The kitchen was paved with odd bits of stone, close
to the dusthole, which was infested with rats. The
drains had long been choked up ; and the windows
were glazed with glass of a smoky-greenish hue,
having all the cracked panes carefully puttied.
The shelves contained only a bare change of dishes
and plates, knives and forks just enough, and those
odd ones, the handles of which had undergone a
4 sea-change,' from a gray pea-green tint to the
yellow tone visible in an overgrown cucumber.
No Flanders-brick was ever used to them, a piece
of true English was preferred, and brought to
Bronze from Marylebone Fields by her master.
Nor was the sink often stopped with tea-leaves,
since they were carefully saved to sprinkle the best
carpet, to lay the dust, before it was swept. The
remainder of the furniture consisted of a flat
candlestick, with a saveall ; but for snuffers Bronze
used her scissors, or indeed, upon most occasions,
her fingers. Of the dining and sitting-parlour, the
description will be familiar to many of the most
elegant, witty, and noble characters of the country
who have been sitters for their busts to Mr.
Nollekens.

That which we will call the dining, sitting, and

308 NOLLE KENS AND HIS TIMES

sitters' parlour, was the corner room, which had
two windows looking south, the entrance to it
being on the right hand in the passage from the
street door in Mortimer Street. The visitors will
recollect that over the chimneypiece there was a
three-quarter portrait of the sculptor himself, with
a modelling-tool in his hand, leaning with his right
elbow upon the bust of the Hon. Charles James
Fox, the execution of which brought him both
reputation and profit.

The artist's modelling-stool was placed near the
street-door window, and the sitter's chair nearer
the door, whilst facing the window there were
several small models of Venus upon the chimney-
piece, over which, and under his own portrait, hung
three miniatures, one being of Sir Joshua Reynolds,
by Edridge, taken from the picture in the club-
room in the Thatched House Tavern, St. James's
Street. The other two were of Mrs. Nollekens and
Miss Welch, painted by Smart, 1 all of which were
presented by the artists.

Between the chimney and the corner window
hung two beautiful impressions, one of Michael
Angelo's ' Last Judgment,' by Martin Rota, and the
other, Raffaelle's ' St. Cecilia,' by Marc-Antonio,
both from the Blackburn Collection. On the
closet-door was suspended a beautiful picture of
flowers, by Deheim, which had been the property
of Miss Moser, and for which Mr. Nollekens said
he gave her forty guineas ; and nearer the window
hung a drawing of Cupid and Psyche,' by Tresham,

1 John Smart, the elder (1740-1811). Ed.

NOLLEKENS* HOUSE 309

with another portrait of Noliekens drawn by Smart.
This drawing is now in the possession of Mr.
Taylor, to whom Mr. Noliekens had formerly
promised it.

For many years two pieces of old green canvas
were festooned at the lower parts of the windows
for blinds, but of late a pretty good glass was
placed against the pier. On the west side of the
parlour, from the window to the north of the room,
hung Mr. Taylor's drawing of Mr. Pitt's statue in a
black frame, which almost destroyed its effect ;
and over it were two pictures, one of Nymphs, by
4 Old Noliekens,' the other was of a dog, by Stubbs.
Under these appeared the print of ' Three Marys,'
after Carracci ; and close in the corner by the
window upon a bracket was placed a small copy of
RafFaelle's model of Jonah ; whilst between the
door and the north end was a small picture with
sheep, by Bourgeois ; and at the north end, also
upon a bracket, stood a small copy of Michael
Angelo's figure of Moses. 1

On the north side of the room hung two land-
scapes, drawn and presented by Gainsborough ; two
drawings by Zoffany, also presentations ; a drawing
by Mr. Taylor of Mr. Noliekens' monument to the
memory of Mrs. Howard, of Corby, and a drawing
from Cipriani were suspended against the door.
Near these were a picture of flowers, by Mrs.
Lloyd, and a portrait of Mr. Welch, by Brompton ; 2

1 Casts of the magnificent originals of these statues are now ex-
hibiting by Mr. Day in the Egyptian Hall, Piccadilly. Smith.

2 Richard Brompton, portrait painter to the Empress Catharine.
He died in St. Petersburg in 1782. Ed.

3io NOLLEKENS AND HIS TIMES

beside which hung Barry's picture of ' The Origin
of Music.' On each side of the chimney was a
drawing by Paul Sandby ; and close to the fire-
place, though rather out of sight, hung two bits of
slate dangling upon a nail, on which Mr. and Mrs.
Nollekens kept their separate memoranda of the
day's expenditure, for they kept distinct accounts
against each other, as to letters, porters employed,
or things purchased for the house, etc. Near the
corner window was a closet, in which were placed
candles though, as for soap, Bronze declared the
house had never known any for forty years and a
few preserves, pickles, or other little presents from
persons who had great expectations. Caleb White-
foord's wine also found a safe depository in this
closet, together with an uncut loaf, or a bit of fresh
butter, a little scalded milk, a paper containing the
academic nutmegs, fragments of string, and old
screws and nails, which were picked up as things
that might be wanted some time or other.

The drawing-room contained a three-quarter
portrait of Mrs. Nollekens, as ' Innocence with a
Dove,' painted by her friend Angelica Kauffmann ;
on the chimneypiece were several models, par-
ticularly the one of Mercury, 1 for which I was
standing when Mr. Taylor smelt the leg of pork.
There were also three landscapes by Wilson, two
of which had been painted for Mr. Welch, and
came to Mrs. Nollekens at the death of her sister ;
a picture by West, four friezes by Bartolozzi, after

1 This was promised me by Mr. Nollekens ; however, I purchased
it at the sale of his property. Smith.

MRS. NOLLEKENS GUINEAS 311

Cipriani, and a drawing by Clarisseau, which hung
against the door. This room was decorated with
some of the furniture of Mrs. Nollekens' mother.

Mr. Welch's library, which also descended to
Mrs. Nollekens, was closely locked up in a small
back-room, where she had deposited eleven hundred
guineas. They were accumulated after the one
and two pound notes were issued, for Mrs. Nolle-
kens, not trusting in the safety of paper currency,
prevailed upon most of her tenants to pay her in
gold ; which request she walked all the way to Mr.
Alderman Combe's brewhouse to make as to the
payment for a house rented of her by that firm in
Drury Lane. These guineas she would look over
pretty often, and weigh in her hands against each
other, partly from the enjoyment she felt in
counting her wealth, and partly to discover if
anyone had been deceiving her with coin short
of weight. Her feeling of delight in this occu-
pation is not unhappily expressed in the following
lines :

1 As these alternate poising in each hand,
He cries, " This doth no no this weigheth most
By half a grain or so ; and half a grain
Of gold is something worth I'd buy me scales,
But scales cost money ; so I must do without 'em." '

I very much fear that Mr. Nollekens had no
innate love of religion, nor ever dedicated much
time to devotion. He was a Roman Catholic
because his father had died in that faith ; but his
attendance at Warwick Street Chapel, and subse-
quently at the one in Sutton Street, Soho Square,

NOLLEKENS AND HIS TIMES

was confined, I am sorry to say, to fine Sunday
mornings ; his regard to Christianity on a rainy
day never extended beyond his own threshold ; nor
was he, according to Bronze's assertion, ever known
to be in private meditation. He now and then,
however, according to the custom of an observant
Catholic, received visits from a priest, who con-
fessed him and gave him absolution. He was never
known to give money to benefit the Roman Church,
but at times he has certainly been seen to extend
his charity to a mendicant at the door of the chapel,
who cunningly moved him by soliciting alms in the
name of St. Francis, the favourite saint of Antwerp,
the native city of his father.

In the course of my long acquaintance with his
pursuits in art, I never saw a single model by his
hand of our Saviour, the Virgin Mary, nor even
St. Francis ; nor do I believe, during his long
practice, that he has once erected a monument to
which the cross has been attached ; no doubt he
would have been employed by many of the Catholic
profession had he applied to them ; though perhaps
it was owing to his careless inattention to his duty
that those of his own persuasion did not employ
him. Whenever Mr. Nollekens spake of the Bible,
he did not appear to have a general knowledge of
its contents, nor do I recollect his selecting a subject
for the exercise of his art from Holy Writ ; and,
even farther, I never once heard him observe that
such and such a subject would model well.

How different, on the contrary, was the pious mind
of Flaxman ; for though he was passionately fond

WESTMINSTER ABBEY 313

of Homer, and other authors never noticed by
Nollekens, he was never more delighted than when
he was engaged upon sacred subjects, as witness
his noble designs from the Lord's Prayer ; for how
sweetly, and, I was going to say, in how heavenly
a manner he has treated them ! I will venture to
assert boldly in the face of the unbeliever who may
laugh at this page, that if our churches were
decorated with sculptured subjects taken from the
best and oldest book in the world, their religious
sentiments would be much more strongly excited
when in a place of public worship than by the filthy
exhibition of General Monk's cap, the shoe-buckles
worn by Lord Nelson, or a favourite i Poll Parrot '
of the deceased ladv, ' modelled ' as the showmen
of the Abbey are pleased to tell the gaping visitors,
L as naturally as life !'

I sincerely hope, however, that a time will come
when Westminster Abbey, and all other buildings
dedicated to sacred purposes, will be cleared of such
mummery and laid open to the free inspection of
the public, who may walk about such noble edifices
and see the works of ancient and modern art with-
out being invited to pay for the exhibition of wax-
work and models of churches which have nothing
whatever to do with the edifice itself ; indeed, the
former were better destroyed, and the models pre-
sented to the Society of Arts. I will also ask the
inquiring reader whether it be fair that the public
should be obliged to pay for a sight of those monu-
ments which the Government has so liberally
erected to perpetuate the memory of those to whom

3 i4 NOLLEKENS AND HIS TIMES

they have been inscribed ? I speak as an artist,
my present theme being principally upon works of
the sculptors of them. The doors should be opened
for certain hours daily, so that the public might see
how extensively liberal, particularly of late years,
the nation has been in voting monuments to the
memory of men of departed genius, and more
especially to those military and naval victors who
have so nobly shed their blood and fallen in their
country's service.

To view the Abbey of Westminster unencum-
bered of its waxen effigies would be a gratification
for many a morning ; and the servants, instead of
expecting a few pence for their own pockets, might
still be employed to walk about to see that no
mischief was done to the treasures of that venerable
structure. 1 Surely it would be far better were a
man to be thus healthfully exercised than to shut
him up in a small recess at the entrance of Poets'
Corner, where now the contribution is demanded,
and where he closes upon the visitor, as a pair of
snuffers top the wick of a candle, and as if the
money-taking business, according to the custom of
a playhouse, was to be looked after first. Now, I
will venture to say that a regular citizen never calls
upon anyone for payment before sight ; nor do the
servants of the very few high families which still
suffer their domestics to take money expect to
receive what the visitors choose to give them before

1 I must, however, add that I should like to see the curious old iron-
work put up again which inclosed the most ancient monuments in the
Abbey. Smith.

CIVIC GOSSIP 315

they are attended back to the portal. Again, I will
ask this question, How far is the London investi-
gator of religious structures to go before he meets
with anything to be compared with such a specimen
of sacred architecture as Westminster Abbey,
mutilated and metamorphosed as it has been ? St.
Albans Abbey, I believe, is the nearest to the
Metropolis.

When Nollekens once had occasion to visit the
Church of St. Giles, Cripplegate, he asked me to
walk with him ; and as we entered Jewin Street we
met Sir William Staines, who informed him of
his having been chosen Mayor, and that he should
send him a ticket for the civic dinner. Nollekens:
c Dinner ! bless your heart, I'd rather dine at home ;
you citizens make such a noise, and I get my clothes
spoiled. You've seen me in my Pourpre du Pape,
and do you know, that at our last Academy dinner
a stupid fool spilt the butter-boat upon it ? Have
you any comforts in your pocket ? I've got such
a cold ! Now, pray tell me, will they let you
smoke your pipe in the Mayor's coach ?' Staines :
' Bless you ! I don't mean to attempt such a thing ;
but when I'm in my private carriage they can't
hinder me ; then if they offer it, I'll take them up !
Have you bought any stone lately ? I've some very
close Yorkshire.' Nollekens : c No, I don't want
any.' Staines : ' Well, then, you won't dine on my
day ?' Nollekens : i No ; but I suppose my friends,
Sir William Beechey and Sir Francis Bourgeois,
will be there. Well, good-bye ; I am going into
the church.' Staines: 'What, into our church?

316 NOLLEKENS AND HIS TIMES

Stay, I'll save you a shilling. I'll ring the bell for
Mrs. Richardson, the sexton's wife. Oh, here she
comes. We want to 2:0 into the churchyard ; I
want to show my wife's tombstone to Mr. Nollekens
and his friend.' Mrs. Richardson : ' Do you know,
Sir iWilliam, there's a corner off ?' ' Ay, I am
sorry for it ; I had the largest I could get for
money, and, as I am a dealer in stone, you see, I
had a little pride about me on that occasion.'
Nollekens : c What a thick one it is ! why did you
waste so much stone ?' Staines : ' That's the
reason ; I was determined to have the thickest for
its size that ever came to London ; it measures
nine feet eight inches in length, by seven feet three
inches and three-quarters in width.'

I was present one morning when Mr. West was
sitting to Nollekens for the bust which the British
Institution had honoured him by ordering for their
gallery, when, among other anecdotes, the President
related the following of Biagio Rebecca, 1 an artist
principally employed in painting staircases and
ceilings with allegorical subjects in arabesque decora-
tions, formerly much in fashion in England,
Mortimer, Cipriani, Angelica Kauffmann, Zucchi
Hamilton, and many other eminent artists being
often engaged upon such works : George III. had
commanded Rebecca to adorn some of the royal
apartments at Windsor, during which employment
his Majesty, with his usual affability, would fre-
quently converse with him ; but in such conversa-

1 Biagio Rebecca was born in Italy in 1735, became an A.R.A., and
died without further promotion in 1808. Ed.

B I AGIO REBECCA 317

tions the artist, who was not a little conceited of his
talents, attempted to conduct himself in the presence
of his Majesty as Verrio did before Charles II.,
being so silly as to believe that his conduct would
be laughed at by the condescending monarch. In
this, however, the impudent Kebecca was mistaken,
for whenever he was guilty of the slightest im-
propriety of that kind the King never failed to
mention it to Mr. West.

One day, at Windsor, after Rebecca had received
a considerable sum of money, he proposed to share
the expense of a postchaise to London with Mr.
West ; and just as they reached Hounslow Heath
the King, who was returning to Windsor, looked
into their chaise. The next time Mr. West was
in the royal presence, the King asked him who the
foreign nobleman was that he had in the chaise
with him the last time they met on Hounslow
Heath. Mr. West declared Rebecca was his only
companion. ' Oh no,' observed his Majesty ; c it
was a person of distinction.' Mr. West, upon
inquiry, found out that Rebecca, who expected
to meet the King, and knew his Majesty to be near-
sighted, had the impudence to fix a paper star on
his coat, which he had cut out for the purpose of
attracting the King's notice, supposing that he
would certainly laugh at it as a jest.

Rebecca, being fully aware of the great fondness
people in general have for money, would, in what-
ever company he was, pass his jokes, purposely to
amuse the frivolous part of them, and the following
trick in particular he was sure to practise : He had

3 i8 NOLLEKENS AND HIS TIMES

prepared a drawing in imitation of a half-crown
piece, which he would unobservedly place upon the
floor, and then laugh immoderately at the eager-
ness with which even a gentleman in full dress,
with his sword and bag, would sometimes run and
scuffle to pick it up.

One day I was standing with Mr. Nollekens at
his gate in Titchfield Street, when a man, with full
staring eyes, accosted him with : ' Well, Mr. Nolle-
kens, how do you do ? You don't remember me ;
but you recollect my grandfather, Arthur Pond.' 1
' Oh yes, very well ; he used to christen old draw-
ings for Hudson ay, I have often seen him when I
was a boy.' The same,' observed the stranger ;
4 my name's John, commonly Jack ; his son, my
father, was a livery- stable keeper, 2 and so Anthony
Pasquin 3 always called me " Horse Pond." Of
this man's sister there is a mezzotinto head, nearly
as laro:e as nature, drawn and engraved from the
life by John Spilsbury, and published by him

1 The painter and engraver (1705-1758). Ed.

2 This stable-keeper was the compiler of the Racing Calendar.'
Smith.

3 Many persons know that Anthony Pasquin's real name was
Williams, but I believe very few are aware that he had been articled
to learn the art of engraving of Matt. Darley, of the Strand, the
famous caricaturist. A particular friend of mine has a set of coat-
buttons, upon every one of which Anthony engraved a boat, as the
badge of a member of a club entitled ' The Sons of Neptune,' con-
sisting of youths who strictly observed the Lord Mayor's rules of
Swan-Upping, for the enjoyment of the scenery of the banks of Old
Father Thames, confining the stretch of their oars from Wapping Old
Stairs to the Bush at Staines. Smith. 'Anthony Pasquin's ' name
was John Williams. He was a pungent critic of contemporary art.
He died in the United States in 1818. Ed.

EXCURSIONS TO UXBRIDGE 319

December I, 176G, then living in Russell Court,
Co vent Garden. This female has been celebrated
by Dr. Johnson, in his ' Idler,' as the lady who rode
a thousand miles in a thousand hours. I have a
portrait of her in her gray hairs, which I drew
when I was studying the various expressions of
insane people in Bethlem Hospital, of which insti-
tution she was an unfortunate inmate. An engraver
of the name of Smith published in 1787 a quarto
portrait of the above John Pond, who being notorious
for nothing but getting drunk, it did not sell ; but
in order to make it answer his purpose, he, to the
great annoyance of Dr. Wolcot, erased the name of
John Pond, and substituted that of Peter Pindar,
without making the least alteration in the features
or person, when in a few days he distributed im-
pressions in the shop-windows all over the town,
and many a portrait-collector has ' enriched ' his
book with it, as the true and lively ef^gy of the
man who cared not whose character he traduced.

I ought to have noticed in a former page that,
when it was customary for so much company to
visit Uxbridge by the barges drawn by horses 1
gaily decked out with ribands, Mr. and Mrs.
Nollekens, with all the gaiety of youthful extrava-
gance, embarked on board, and actually dined out
on that gala-day at their own expense. The sights
they saw on this memorable aquatic excursion
afforded them mutual conversation for several
weeks ; and Mrs. Nollekens actually tired her
friends with letters upon their canal adventures

1 The Grand Junction Canal was opened to Uxbridge in 1801 ? Ed.

320 NOLLEKENS AND HIS TIMES

from Paddington to Uxbridge, and from Uxbridge
to Paddington. In these epistles she most poetically
expatiated upon the clearness of the water, the
fragrance of the flowers, the nut-brown tints of the
wavy corn, and the ruddy and healthful com-
plexions of the cottagers' children, who waited
anxiously to see the vessel approach their native
shores. The only fatigue was the hasty walk from
Mortimer Street to Paddington, and the loitering
return from Paddington to Mortimer Street, where,
soon after their arrival, they refreshed themselves
with an additional cup of tea, and for that evening
indulged in going to bed before sunset.

The pleasures of a similar excursion induced the
late venerable President West to paint a picture of
the barge he went by, on the crowded deck of which
he has introduced his own portrait, and also those
of several of his friends who were that day on
board. This pleasing and singular picture adorns
the splendid gallery of West's works, daily exhibit-
ing at his late house in Newman Street.

These excursions to Uxbridge were, like many
other fashionable entertainments, soon laid aside.
Air-balloons were also formerly much sought after ;
but now on a summer's afternoon, if one be
announced, few people will turn up their eyes to
look at it. And steamboats, which have engaged
the thoughts of the aquatic travellers, are already
talked of with indifference, since a steam stage-
coach 1 is about to start without horses.

1 This ran several times from Hyde Park Corner to Reading and
back, but did not prove a success. Ed.

RATS' CASTLE

One May morning, during Mrs. Nollekens*
absence from town, Mrs. Lobb, an elderly lady, in
a green calash, from the sign of the Fan, in Dyot
Street, St. Giles's, was announced by Kit Finney,
the mason's son, as wishing to see Mr. Nollekens.
' Tell her to come in,' said Nollekens, concluding
that she had brought him a fresh subject for a
model just arrived from the country ; but upon
that lady's entering the studio, she vociferated
before all his people : 4 1 am determined to expose
you, I am, you little grub !' c Kit !' cried Nollekens,
6 call the yard-bitch,' adding, with a clenched fist,
that ' if she kicks up any bobbery here I will send
Lloyd for Lefuse, the constable.' ' Ay, ay, honey !*
exclaimed the dame, ; that won't do. It's all mighty
fine talking in your own shop. I'll tell his Worship
Collins, in another place, what a scurvy way you
behaved to young Bet Belmanno yesterday ! Why,
the girl is hardly able to move a limb to-day. To
think of keeping a young creature eight hours in
that room, without a thread upon her, or a morsel
of anything to eat or a drop to drink, and then to
give her only two shillings to bring home ! Neither
Mr. Fuseli nor Mr. Tresham would have served me
so. How do you think I can live and pay the
income-tax ? Never let me catch you or your dog
beating our rounds again ; if you do, I'll have you
both skinned and hung up in Rats' Castle. 1 Who

1 ' Rats' Castle,' a shattered house then standing on the east side of
Dyot Street, and so called from the rat-catchers and canine snackers
who inhabited it, and where they cleaned the skins of those un-
fortunate stray dogs who had suffered death the preceding night.
Smith.

21

322 NOLLEKENS AND HIS TIMES

do you laugh at ?' she continued, at the same time
advancing towards him. c I have a great mind to
break all your gashly images about the head of
your fine miss, in her silks and satins ' mistaking
his lay-figure for a living model of the highest
sort. ' I suppose you pay my lady well enough,
and pamper her besides !'

Nollekens, perceiving Mrs. Lobb's rage to
increase, for the first time, perhaps, drew his purse-
strings willingly, and, putting shilling after shilling
into her hand, counted four and then stopped.
4 No, no,' said she ; ' if you don't give me t'other
shilling, believe me, I don't budge an inch!' 1 This
he did ; and Kit, after closing the gates, received
peremptory orders from his master to keep them
locked for three or four days at least, for fear of a
second attack.

Soon after I had the honour of being appointed
Keeper of the Prints and Drawings in the British
Museum, Mr. Nollekens, accompanied by Mr.
Gibson and Mr. Bonomi, the sculptors, came to
visit me. Upon my being apprised of my old
friend's arrival in the gallery I went to meet him,
in order to see that he had a chair, as he was then
very feeble. I remember, when he was seated in
the middle of the Elgin Room, he put the following
question to the late Mr. Combe, loud enough to be
heard by everyone present who approached to see
him : ' Why did not you bring the iEgina marbles
with you, they are more clever than the Phygalian

1 Mrs. Lobb succeeded the notorious Dame Phillips, formerly of
the sign of the Fau, in Orange Court. Smith.

A VISIT FROM NOLLEKENS 323

marbles ? How could you be so stupid as to
miss them ?'

Mr. Combe, thinking to divert him from the
subject, said : ' I thought you wore hair-powder,
sir ? I continue to wear hair-powder, and always
use the best I can get.' Mr. Nollekens, not hearing
him, repeated nearly the same question in a louder
voice : ' I say, why did you let them go ?' For-
tunately for Mr. Combe, however, he was sent
for, and so escaped a further interrogation. Mr.
Nollekens then walked up to No. 64, the fragment
of a male figure, and exclaimed : f There, you see,
look at that shoulder and a part of the breast, look
at the veins ! The ancients did put veins to their
gods, though my old friend, Gavin Hamilton,
would have it they never did.'

When he was as;ain descending to the Townlev
Gallery, he stopped at the first flight of steps, and,
taking hold of a button of my coat, desired me to
go and stand there, adding, 'Now you stand where
Queen Charlotte sot when she came to see the
Museum. She was very tired ; they brought her a
chair, and I stood upon the steps below.'

As we were passing along the gallery, he said :
'Ay, I remember seeing the tears fall down the
cheeks of Mr. John Townley when the Parliament
said they would buy the marbles. He didn't wish
'em to take 'em ; and he said to me, "Mr. Nollekens,
if Government don't take my nephew's marbles,
I'll send 'em down to Townley Hall, and make a
grand show with 'em there." Poor man, I never
shall forget how forlorn he looked.' When we

324 NOLLEKENS AND HIS TIMES

arrived at the terra- cotta room, he exclaimed,
looking up : ' How white these things are getting !
Now, I dare say they put 'em into the wall with
wet plaster ; they should have put 'em in with what
Mr. Townley used to call bitumen, and then they
won't moulder. Well, make my compliments to
Mr. Planta ; I've remembered him, and so I have
Combe, though he did let the marbles slip through
his fingers, and so I have you, Tom. Well, good-
bye ! This Museum will be a fine place very soon.*
c Ay, sir,' observed I, ' suppose you were to leave
us your fine heads of Commodus and Mercury f
to which he answered, ' Well, perhaps I may.
Townley wanted 'em very much, but I could not
get my price. He sent to me about 'em just before
he died.'

To continue these recollections of Mr. Nollekens
at this period, I shall present my readers with a
few more anecdotes communicated to me bv
friends.

The late Mr. Garrard, 1 the Associate of the
Royal Academy, said to Nollekens : ' Well, they
tell me I shall be elected an R.A.' Nollekens t
4 Indeed ! why you've told me that these seven
years.' When Garrard had taken his leave, a
friend present observed : ' He's a sculptor as well
as a painter.' Nollekens: 'Yes, he paints better
than he sculps. He's jack-of -all-trades ; the rest
we'll leave out.'

1 George Garrard, born 1760 ; elected an A.R.A. in 1802 ; died
1826, without having been promoted to the R.A.-ship. He was an
animal painter and sculptor. Ed.

THE BLUNTNESS OF NOLLEKENS 325

A lady, with her three daughters, once visited
Mr. Nollekens to show him the drawings of her
youngest, who was a natural genius. Upon his
looking at them, he advised her to have a regular
drawing- master. ; And I can recommend you one,'
added he ; c he only lives over the way, and his
name is John Varley.' 1 The lady asked him if he
were a man of mind. 4 Oh yes !' said Nollekens,
' he's a clever fellow ; one of our best. I'll ring
the bell, and send my maid for him ; he'll soon tell
you his mind,' so ignorant was our sculptor of the
lady's meaning.

Whenever he was in Chelsea with a friend, he
was always pleased in pointing out the house in
which his mother lived after her marriage with
Williams, saying that ' when he took leave of her
at the street-door upon his going to Rome, she said
to him, " There, Joey, take that ; you may want it
when you are abroad." It was a housewife, con-
taining needles, a bodkin, and thread ; and, do you
know,' added he, ; it was the most useful thing she
could have given me, for it lasted all the time
I was at Rome to mend my clothes with ; ay, and
I have got that very housewife by me now ;
and, do you know, I would not take any money
for it.'

Desenfans, the famous dealer in old pictures,
whose remains rest in a splendid mausoleum at
Dulwich, erected after a design by Soane, was
originally a dealer in Brussels lace and a teacher of
the French language.

1 Astrologer and water-colour painter (1778-1842). Ed.

NOLLEKENS AND HIS TIMES

A lady, however, one of his pupils, possessed of
5,000, fell so desperately in love with him that
she soon after married him. During their honey-
moon they, like most people in a similar situation,
drove into the country for a little recreation, and
there at an auction he purchased a few old pictures,
which, on his return to London, he sold to such
advantage that he considered it his interest to follow
up the trade. By great industry and a little taste
he at length amassed so considerable a sum that he
finally was enabled to form a much better collection,
which he left to his protege, Sir Francis Bourgeois,
who, at the suggestion of the late John Kemble,
left it to Dulwich College, merely because that
institution had been founded by an actor.

I mention these particulars because Nollekens
told my worthy friend Arnald that he and a friend
went halves in purchasing a picture by Pordenone,
for which he gave 11 5s., and which they speedily
sold to Desenfans for 30. In these brokering
bargains Nollekens often showed considerable
cunning, for he would, to my knowledge, seldom
speculate without a partner.

I receive infinite pleasure whenever an oppor-
tunity presents itself in which I can exhibit the
conduct of my old friend Mr. Nollekens to advan-
tage ; and I must do him the justice to prove his
attachment to modern art, by mentioning the
purchases which he made at various times, and
which will clearly evince his general inclination
towards his brother artists. He would certainly
have more extensively indulged in these purchases

COLLECTION OF ENGRA VINGS 327

had not Mrs. Nollekens checked his liberality. I
remember his giving 90 for a small picture by
West ; and that he also purchased at Barry's
auction ' The Origin of Music,' a small specimen,
but one of that artist's most interesting designs,
and a remarkably good piece of colouring for him.
It was bought at Nollekens' sale by the Earl of
Egremont, one of the many noblemen who, upon all
occasions, contribute liberally to the encouragement
of modern art.

Nollekens had likewise a fine collection of the
engravings from Sir Joshua Reynolds' pictures, in
which he took great delight, and was never better
pleased than when he could add to their number.
Some persons have said that many of them were
presented to him by those mezzotinto engravers
who were looking after Associates' places in the
Academy ; but, be this as it might, I never knew
him to ask an engraver for a print. He certainly
accepted impressions from the owners of private
plates ; and the Earl of Essex, who is in possession
of a choice collection of impressions after Sir
Joshua, gave him one which had been engraved at
the expense of his lordship purposely to present to
his friends.

It is very remarkable that many of our eminent
characters, and it possibly may be so with those
of other nations, sometimes glaringly expose them-
selves by descending to the most frivolous mean-
nesses ; particularly in preserving every insignificant
article, which gratification as often excites astonish-
ment in their friends as it exposes them to the un-

/

328 NOLLE KENS AND HIS TIMES

reflecting remarks of their enemies, who illiberally
report such anecdotes without making the least
allowance for the odd compound of ingredients of
which the human mind is in general composed.

As corroborations of these imbecilities, I shall
venture to give four instances, the first two of
which the reader will not so much wonder at, as
they certainly are related of persons of weak
intellect, though standing on eminent ground as
artists ; but he will be surprised at the two latter,
as they relate to sensible men who have shone
in society, and of the first talents, perhaps, in
their respective classes which this country has
produced.

Nollekens, who was born to shine as one of our
brightest stars as a bust-modeller, whilst he was
forming the beautiful bosom of Lady Charlemont,
suddenly left her ladyship to desire the helper in
the yard not to give the dog more than half the
paunch that day, observing that the rest would
serve him to-morrow, as Mr. John Townley had
given him the greatest part of a French roll that
very morning.

Nollekens, however, I firmly believe, had no idea
whatever of making himself noticed by singularities.
His actions were all of the simplest nature ; and he
cared not what he said or did before anyone, how-
ever high might be their station in life. He so
shocked the whole of a large party one night at
Lady Beechey's that several gentlemen complained
of his conduct, to which Sir William could only
reply, ' Why, it is Nollekens, the sculptor !'

ABRAHAM PETHER 329

When Abraham Pether, 1 the painter of the cele-
brated picture of c The Harvest Moon,' employed
himself a whole day to make his wife a dust-shovel,
he was so indiscreet, though he at that time stood
in need of purchasers, as to refuse the admittance
of two gentlemen who walked from London to
Chelsea with the full determination to bespeak
pictures of him. The painter, however, after he
had whistled through a dozen new tunes and smoked
as many pipes, at length finished his task, and re-
marked to a friend, ' There, my boy, if you were
to give half-a-crown for a dust- shovel, I will be
bound to say you could not get a better.'

Abraham Pether was one of those silly beings
who endeavour to gain popularity by being called
eccentric ; and, amongst others, he often practised
the following trick : He would knock at a friend's
door, and when the servant opened it, he was dis-
covered striking a light to set fire to his pipe, and
then when he had accomplished his task, he would
walk in whiffing his tobacco.

It is reported of Sir Joshua Reynolds that one
day, when the knight was looking about the house
for old canvases, he found a mop-stick put up in
the corner of the back-kitchen, and that he strictly
charged Ralph to see to its preservation, in order
that its value might be deducted when the next
new mop was purchased. Who could imagine such
a charge to proceed from the author of his noble
Lectures, and the artist who painted the glorious
pictures of l Ugolino ' at Knowle, ' The Infant
1 1756-1812. Ed.

33o NOLLE KENS AND HIS TLMES

Hercules ' at Petersburg, and Mrs. Siddons as the
; Tragic Muse' at Lord Grosvenor's ? Sir Joshua
Reynolds was an elegant man, and admired for the
mildness of his manners.

It has been asserted also that Pope, when engaged
in writing some of his most elegant works, would
leave off to cook lampreys, in a silver saucepan,
over his own fire. Pope piqued himself upon the
high birth of those with whom he associated.

Nollekens, who was at one time passionately fond
of seeing the soldiers relieve guard, was accosted
one Sunday morning, when bustling down the Hay-
market with his little protege Joseph towards the
Parade, by a little girl, who supplicated him to ring
an upper bell. ' Ring a bell, ring a bell, my pretty
little maid, that I will ;' but he could not accom-
plish it. A Lifeguardsman, well knowing the
advantage of a few inches, coming down the street
and seeing Nollekens on tip-toe, straining himself
to enjoy his favourite amusement of bell-pulling,
raised his arm at a riffht-anffle from his bodv, and
pulled the bell with the greatest ease, to the great
surprise of Nollekens and the joy of the child, who
had been squeezed by the crescent, tip -toe position
of Nollekens against the door-post. This scene
would be a good one for the spirited pencil of
Cruikshank, and it might be called the ' Advantage
of Greatness.'

Mr. Nollekens, when modelling the bust of a
lady of high fashion, requested her to lower her
handkerchief in front ; the lady objected, and ob-
served : c I am sure, Mr. Nollekens, you must be

BEHAVIOUR TOWARDS THE QUALITY 331

sufficiently acquainted with the general form ; there-
fore, there can be no necessity for my complying
with your wish ;' upon which Nollekens muttered
that c there was no bosom worth looking at beyond
the age of eighteen.'

Lady Arden had once been waiting some time in
the parlour for Mr. Nollekens, who had the decency
to attempt an apology, by assuring her ladyship
{ that he could not come up before, for that he had
been downstairs washing his feet ;' further adding
that they were ' now quite comfortable.'

Nollekens being once in expectation of a very
high personage to visit his studio, was dressed to
receive him ; and after walking up and down the
passage for nearly an hour, being deprived of the
advantage of using his clay for fear of spoiling his
clothes, he at length heard the equipage arrive.
According to his usual custom, he opened the street-
door, and as the illustrious visitor alighted he cried
out : ' So you're come at last ! Why, you are an
hour beyond your time ; you would not have found
me at home if I had had anywhere to have gone to,
I assure you !'

One day, when Lady Newborough, who was a
great favourite with Mr. and Mrs. Nollekens, was
invited to dinner, they sent, just before they were
about to sit down, to Taylor to make up the party ;
Taylor's spirit, however, would not allow him to
accept of so short a notice, and he preferred dining
at home. The next day Mrs. Nollekens expressed
her sorrow that she had not the pleasure of his
company, stating that they had a venison pasty

332 NOLLEKENS AND HIS TIMES

which she could not eat, at the same time blabbing
that the preceding week they had had a fine haunch,
of which she was very fond, and, indeed, never
tired.

When Tuppin, a carpenter, received orders for a
packing-case, he was always obliged to state pre
cisely what it would amount to, and then Mr.
Xollekens would strengthen the bargain by insisting
upon it being sent home well stuffed with shavings ;
but these he never suffered the servants to have at
their mercy ; they were locked up in a place called
a wine-cellar, and given out by himself the night
before they were wanted for morning use.

In some instances, however, Mr. Nollekens was,
according to the old adage, ' penny wise and pound
foolish'; and this was particularly the case as to
sweeping his chimneys, since he thought that many
persons had them swept too often. However, after
having been several times annoyed by the fire-
engines and their regular attendants the mob he
was determined to have them more frequently
cleaned, though some of them, for the want of fires,
yielded no soot. He nevertheless consoled himself
for this increased expenditure by discovering that
such a practice kept up the fame of a consumption
of coals, like one of the masters of Gil Bias, who
always picked his teeth after the dinner-hour, to
induce his neighbours to believe he had dined.

Mr. Nollekens once showed Mr. Gahagan a sketch
in charcoal which he had made of Mrs. Palmer
attending her daughter, who had been ill for a con-
siderable time, having drawn the young lady with

EATABLES 333

a book in her hand which she had been reading.
The sculptor, however, smeared out the book, ob-
serving to Grahagan : ' She is getting better now ;
she shan't have a book.'

The most insignificant eatable offered to him by
the poorest of his labourers he would not only
accept and eat, but was sure to make some observa-
tion upon it. I recollect a stone-polisher, of the
name of Lloyd, giving him a cheese-cake, and
Nollekens, after asking him where he had bought
it, observed that the Kensington cheese-cakes, and
those made at Birch's in Cornhill, Mrs. Nollekens
allowed to be the best. Whenever my friend, Mr.
John Kenton, the portrait-painter, presented a melon
to Mr. Nollekens, he always observed : ' This I like ;
it puts me so much in mind of Kome.'

Mr. Deville, well known for his fine phrenological
collection of busts, etc., when a young man was
employed by Mr. Nollekens to make casts from
moulds which required oil, upon which he produced
a little, saying : ' There, you'll find that to be more
than enough.' Deville, having poured it out into a
shallow basin, declared it to be insufficient. ' I
don't wonder at that,' replied Nollekens snappishly ;
1 why did you not ask me for a wine-glass ? You've
wasted half of it on the broad bottom of the basin !'

[334]

CHAPTER XIV.

Mr. Nollekens' insensibility to ancient art and liberality to modern
artists Stewart's picture of Washington Further instances of Mr.
Nollekens' eccentricities and manners His intended bequest to the
Royal Academy Condescension of the Princess of Wales to him
Bantering letters Conduct of Sir F. Bourgeois Mr. Nollekens'
man Dodimy Moses Kean Nollekens' summons to his tenants
for rent His household economy and habits His custom when
Visitor at the Royal Academy Caprice of his charities Lord
Mansfield's benevolence Mr. Wivell Nollekens' love of news-
papers, and memoranda of remarkable events Unfeeling treat-
ment of his model Other anecdotes of his domestic arrangements,
art, and liberality Frivolous presents, etc., sent him towards the
close of his life Beauty of foliated ornaments in sculpture
Inferiority of architecture to sculpture and painting.

My friend, Mr. Robertson, 1 the justly -admired
miniature-painter, upon receiving an exquisitely
beautiful picture by Ratfaelle, consigned to him by
Mr. Trumbold, invited Mr. Nollekens, among many
other artists of eminence, to see it ; but, with all
its excellence, it appeared to make no impression
upon him whatever, and the only observation he
made upon leaving the house was : ' Well, as you
are pleased with it, I am glad you have got it.'

1 Andrew Robertson, of Aberdeen (1777-1845), who became the
doyen of the English miniaturists. Ed.

LIBERALITY OF NOLLEKENS 335

Insensible, however, as Nollekens generally was
when looking: at works of ancient art, I must do
him the justice to say that in no instance, excepting
when speaking of Flaxman, have I known him
attempt to depreciate the productions of modern
artists ; on the contrary, I have frequently heard
him say, when he has been solicited to model a
bust, c Gro to Chantrey ; he's the man for a busto !
He'll make a good busto of you ; I always recom-
mend him.' I have also known him to give an
artist, who could not afford to purchase it, a lump
of stone, to enable him to execute an order, though,
at the same time, I have seen him throw himself
into a violent passion with a favourite cat for
biting the feather of an old pen, with which he had
for many years oiled the hinges of his gates when-
ever they creaked. I can almost imagine I see
him now standing before the cat, with the pen in
his hand, actually showing her what mischief she
had done, with as much gravity as a certain stupid
sheriff manifested when he was counting the horse-
shoe nails, or chopping his finger instead of the
stick in the Court of Exchequer, when he was
sworn into office by the Lord Chief Baron.

Mr. Nollekens once called out across the street
to me, on the opposite side of Hay Hill : c Smith,
Peter Coxe has just knocked down General
Washington, Stewart's picture. Well, what do you
think ? It fetched a great deal more than any
modern picture ever brought by auction before, for
he has just sold it at Lord Lansdowne's for
540 15s.! You know Stewart : he was born in

536 NOLLEKENS AND HIS TIMES

America, He painted that fine portrait of Caleb
Whitefoord. He's a very clever fellow ; jnst as
clever as Dance I mean, Sir Nathaniel Dance
Holland.'

One evening, Bronze happening to place the tea-
kettle over the fire, Nollekens immediately cried
out : ' You careless devil, you don't care for
the work you'll have in the morning to get it
clean!' And when she left the room he angrily
muttered, ' Extravagant creature, burning out the
kettle !'

Mr. Nollekens, when he dined out of late years,
always over-ate himself, particularly with the pastry
and dessert. However, he contrived to purloin a
small quantity of sweetmeats from the table, which
he carried to Bronze, saying : c There, Betty, you
see what I have brought you home ; I don't forget
you.'

When he was showing Mr. Rossi, the Academi-
cian, his design for a monument to the memory of
the late Mrs. Coke, of Norfolk, Mrs. Nollekens,
being the latest up that morning, came into the
room, and immediately walked up to her husband,
and then, after making a stately curtsey, with her
accustomed precision of pronunciation said : ' Sir,
your watch. My dear father never left his watch
about.'

When Mr. Jackson was once making a drawing
of a monument at the sculptor's house, Nollekens
came into the room and said : 4 I'm afraid you're
cold here.' ' I am, indeed,' said Jackson. ' Ay,'
answered the sculptor, ' I don't wonder at it. Why,

MISS GERRARD 337

do you know, there has not been a lire in this room
for these forty years !'

The same artist having asked him what he meant
to exhibit at the Eoyal Academy, Nollekens
answered : i Oh, nothing ; I be done now!' c Well,'
replied the painter, c but you should send some-
thing to add to our display of sculpture ;' but his
reply was still a selfish one : ' No ; I be done.' For
he had no idea of sending anything simply for the
advantage of the establishment, of which he was
so old a member, although at one period of his life
he told me that he had left, in one of his wills, the
sum of 100,000, to enable that highly respectable
body to erect a new Academy.

Miss Grerrard, the daughter of the auctioneer,
who received a legacy of 19 19s. after Mrs.
Nollekens' death, frequently called to know how he
did, and once the sculptor pressed her to dine with
him, to which she at last consented. ' Well, then,'
said he to his pupil, Joseph Bonomi, ' go and order
a mackerel. Stay, one won't be enough ; you had
better get two, and you shall dine with us!' It
must here be observed that his two servants were
now on board-wa^es.

During the time Mr. Nollekens was modelling
the bust of the Princess of Wales at Blackheath,
her Boyal Highness, upon seeing his ear filled with
powder, observed : 4 Mr. Nollekens, your hair-
dresser has left some powder in your ear ; it will
make you deaf ;' and immediately leaving her
chair, she took up a handkerchief and wiped it
away.

22

338 NOLLEKENS AND HIS TIMES

About this time he was courted by several legacy-
hunters who were beating about the bush, and
amusing trifles from various quarters were con-
tinually planted before him in his room. One
brought him a tall and extended chimney-cam-
panula, and, to make it look taller, had it placed
upon a table within a foot of his nose, so that he
was obliged to throw his head back to survey it ;
and another brought the French giant in a coach y
when he was delighted to ecstasy to see him touch
the ceiling. During this visit Bonomi made a
mould of his immense right hand.

Now and then Nollekens received letters that
were written by way of hoax, one of which, I
remember in particular, was in the name of a very
high personage, to know what he would charge for
cutting a figure in porphyry ten feet high. This
application Mrs. Nollekens absolutely answered,,
addressing her letter to the nobleman in whose
name it was written, which brought his lordship the
next day, when, to make amends for the trouble
Mrs. Nollekens had taken in answering the sillv
writer's letter, he bespoke a bust of his lady.

For many years, every summer's morn, Mr.
Nollekens was up with the rising sun. He began
his work by watering his clay, when he modelled
till eight o'clock, at which hour he generally
breakfasted, and then, as he entered his studio,,
would observe to his workmen that every man
should earn his breakfast before he ate it.

It is occasionally proper to expose in public
print the cruel manner in which some persons

SIX FRANCIS BOURGEOIS 339

treat their nearest relatives, in order that other
hardened offenders may repent of their conduct
before it be too late. Snch a person was the late
Sir Francis Bourgeois, 1 who left his property to
Dulwich College, without leaving a farthing to his
niece and her poor, innocent, and unoffending
children. I recollect Mr. Nollekens once showing
me a letter which he had received from Sir
William Beechey, and, to the best of my re-
collection, the purport of it was that the bearer of
it was the niece of Sir Francis Bourgeois, who had
been walking about the streets all night with her
children for want of a lodging. Sir William applied
to Mr. Nollekens to give her a trifle, directing his
attention to her miserable looks and state of
apparel. God forbid we should have other instances
of such pride and cruelty !

A candle with Nollekens, as is generally the case
with misers, was a serious article of consumption,
indeed, so much so that he would frequently put it
out and, merely to save an inch or two, sit entirely
in the dark, at times, too, when he was not in the
least inclined to sleep. So keen was he in watching
the use of that commoclitv, that whenever Bronze
ventured into the yard with a light, he always
scolded her for so shamefully flaring the candle.
One evening his man Dodimy, who then slept in
the house, came home rather late, but quite sober
enough to attempt to go upstairs unheard without
his shoes ; but, as he was passing Nollekens' door,

1 Born of Swiss parentage in 1756 ; made A.R.A. in 1787 and R.A.
in 1793 ; knighted by the King of Poland in 1791. He was thrown
from his horse and killed in 1811. Ed.

340 NOLLEKENS AND HIS TIMES

the immensely-increased shape of the keyhole shone
upon the side of the room so brilliantly, that he
cried out : c Who's there V It's only me, sir,'
answered Dodimy ; ; I am going to bed.' ' Going
to bed, you extravagant rascal ! Why don't you
go to bed in the dark, you scoundrel ?' ' It's my
own candle,' replied Dodimy. ' Your own candle !
Well, then, mind you don't set fire to yourself.
Well, how did you come on at Lord George
Cavendish's ? You have been cleaning bustos
there these six days. I told you, Dodimy, things
could not be done so soon no, things are not to be
done in a hurry, Master Dodimy.' ' Lord bless
you, sir, I had some turtle- soup there to-day, and
such ale !' ' Well, well, take care of yourself. I
say things must not be done in a hurry.'

One day Dodimy opened the studio door, and
cried out, ' Sir ! sir ! here comes the Chelsea
pensioner to have his shoulders moulded for your
busto of Mr. Perceval !' ' What,' said Nollekens,
1 the man with his two wooden-legs and a crutch ?'
' Yes, sir,' answered Dodimy. l Lord, sir, he has
left off his crutch, and is swaggering on his buttocks,
twirling a little switch just as Moses Kean used
to do.'

The late Moses Kean was a tailor, a stout-built
man with black bushy hair and a wooden leg. He
was always dressed in a dashing manner, in a scarlet
coat, white satin waistcoat, black satin small-clothes,
and a ' Scott's Liquid dye ' blue silk stocking ; he
had also a long- quartered shoe, with a large buckle
covering his foot, a cocked hat, and a ruffled shirt,

PORTRAITS 341

and never went out without a switch or cane in his
hand. He was a very extraordinary mimic, par-
ticularly in his imitations of Charles James Fox,
which he gave occasionally at the Little Theatre in
the Hay market. Mr. Alefounder 1 painted a whole-
length portrait of him as large as life in the above
dress, which was exhibited in the left-hand corner
of the ante-room at Somerset House. There is also
a whole-length etching of him of a quarto size.
Mr. Edmund Kean, the celebrated actor, owes his
education to the above person, who was his uncle,
and when I was a boy lived at No. 9, Little St.
Martin's Lane.

Mr. Nollekens in former days, when he was alive
to the interest of monev, before he suffered thou-
sands of pounds to rest in his bankers' hands
unemployed, would write to his tenants in the
following style, in what he considered a lawyer's
manner :

i Mr. Nollekens request Mr. will pay

him that quarter's rent, due the 29th, forthwith,
without delay, on or before Thursday next, twelve
o'clock at noon.'

Nollekens' old coal-box was of a square shape ;
it had been a lawyer's wig-box that had been sent
with a barrister's wig to be modelled from. This
box had been mended with bits of tin, which he had
picked up of a morning near the dust-heaps in the
fields ; but his house contained neither coal-hods
nor scoops, nor anything like the splendour of a

1 John Alefounder, the miniature painter. He died at Calcutta in
1795.-ED.

342 NOLLEKENS AND HIS TIMES

certain created lord, who bad his coronet painted
upon his coal-scuttles.

Bronze, who, as the reader will recollect, was
called c Black Bet ' by the Oxford market butchers,
would, in her master's dotage, put her arm round
his neck and ask him how he did. ; What !'
observed Nollekens, ' now you want some money
I've got none.' c Why, sir, how am I to buy
things for your table without it ? You have
enough of it, fresh and blooming, and all alive at
Chambers's.' Nollekens : ' Can you dance ?' ' Dance,
sir ! to be sure I can. Give me the cat ;' and then
she jigged about with it, at which he would laugh
heartily.

Nollekens often baited his rat-trap with an
unusual quantity of cheese, thinking to catch all
the vermin at once, never dreaming that when one
was caught the trap would shut the rest out, and
that the solitary visitor would eat up the whole.
Why the rats infested his house, Bronze declared
she never could make out. Food they certainly
had not ; and an old rat might have said to Nolle-
kens when he was busy in setting his trap :

' Fear not, old fellow, for your hoard ;
I come to lodge, and not to board.'

A lady of high fashion once brought her child to
have her beautiful arm moulded. Mr. Nollekens,
who, as usual upon such occasions, began with his
gibberish to the child, ' What a pretty handy -
dandy !' was requested by the lady not to utter such
nonsense, but to proceed with his task ; adding,
that her child's nurse was a well-educated woman.

ACTS OF KINDNESS 343

So determined was Nollekens upon all occasions
to have a pennyworth for his penny, that he has
frequently been noticed, when visitor at the Eoyal
Academy, to turn down the hour-glass whenever
Charles, the model, got up to rest himself, in order
that the students might not be deprived of one
moment of the time for which the model was paid.
However, one evening in doing this he let the glass
fall and broke it. This, he observed, he would
replace by one which he would bring from his
studio, muttering, ' They don't make things so
strong as they did when I was a boy.'

One day Mrs. Nollekens, after a trifling brush
with her husband, who had declined taking further
orders for the studio, rated him soundly for paying
full wages to his man Dodimy, who had nothing to do
but to sweep the yard and feed the dog. Nollekens,
sidling up to Dodimy, in a whisper told him not to mind
her, for that he would raise his wages two shillings
per week purposely to spite her, that he would.

His acts of kindness, indeed, depended entirely
on his momentary humour, for he had no fixed
principle of generosity. In this he illustrated the
remark of Mrs. Hannah More, in her 4 Christian
Morals,' vol. i., p. 187, where she says, ' We must
not judge of our charity by single acts and par-
ticular instances, for they are not always good men
who do good things, but by our general tendencies
and propensities. We must strive after a uniformity
in our charity, examine whether it be equable,
steady, voluntary, and not a charity of times and
seasons and humours.'

344 NOLLEKENS AND HIS TIMES

Mr. Nollekens was standing with the late Earl
Mansfield in his lordship's farmyard at Kenwood,
when a little girl came up to him and presented her
mother's compliments to Farmer Mansfield, and she
would be obliged to him for a jug of milk. ' Who
is your mother, my little dear ?' asked his lordship.
4 She's just come to live in that small house close by
the road.' His lordship, with his usual smile, called
to one of the helpers, and desired him to fill the
child's mug, and if he found the family deserving,
never to refuse them milk. Although Nollekens
was frequently heard to relate the above anecdote,
yet he never felt the force of this noble example, as
his contributions were generally capricious.

Mr. Wivell, 1 who is now an artist of ability, was,
before the dawn of his talent, a hairdresser, and, as
he himself relates, frequently shaved and dressed
Mr. Nollekens, who took great notice of him, and
from whom he now and then received some kind-
nesses. Mr. Wivell informs me that one day, when
Mr. Nollekens was under his hand, or, as Rowland-
son humorously styles it, l a sufferer for decency,'
Wivell stated to him that someone had stepped
into his shop and carried off a new hat which had
just been sent home. The sculptor, when the
operation was over, took a one-pound note from his
pocket-book, and giving it to him, said, ' There,
that will buy you another.'

Wivell was also with him one day when shirts
were mentioned. ' How many do you wear in a
week ?' asked Nollekens. ? Two, sir,' replied

1 Abraham Wivell, the portrait-painter (1786-1849). Ed.

ABRAHAM WIVELL 345

Wivell ; ' and that's all my stock, for I wear one
while the other is washed/ c Poor Wivell !'
whispered he, and then gave him a one-pound note.
Nollekens' own stock only consisted of three.

Wivell was frequently invited to spend the even-
ing with him to look over his prints. After going
through those after Sir Joshua Reynolds, Mr.
Wivell recommended him to throw out his dupli-
cates ; which he did, and then asked him to value
them. ' Sir,' said he, upon looking them over, ' I
think I could make two guineas of them.' ' What
will you give me for them ?' demanded Nollekens.
1 Thirty shillings,' replied Wivell. c Then,' said
the sculptor, ' I won't sell them ; I'll give them
to you.'

Having had some success, Mr. Wivell published
at his own expense an engraving in mezzotinto,
from Sir William Beechey's portrait of his patron
Nollekens ; and did himself the pleasure of pre-
senting him with a proof impression, also indulging
in the like liberality to Mrs. Nollekens. This plate,
however, did not sell, and the engraver lost 25 in
the undertaking. Some time after its publication
Mr. Nollekens informed the artist that he wanted
an impression to give away, and after asking the
price of a proof, said, l Well, I'll have a print.'
Upon its delivery he asked the price of it. l Seven
shillings and sixpence, sir, was the price I put upon
it,' observed Wivell. ' Well, then, what will it be
to me ? You won't charge me that sum,' said
Nollekens. ' Oh, sir, pray give me what you please,'
returned Wivell, who felt grateful for past favours.

346 NOLLEKENS AND HIS TIMES

' Well, then,' returned lie, 4 there's three shillings
for you.'

He also relates that Mr. Nollekens frequently
spoke of a man that he met in the fields, who would
now and then, with all the gravity of an apothecary,
inquire after the state of his bowels. ' At last,'
said he, ' I found he wanted to borrow money of
me.'

One morning, while he was under the razor, he
told Wivell that the dav before he had witnessed
two scenes of the greatest contrast : the first was
the inside of Newgate, where he had been to ask
Mr. Alexander Davison how he did ; the other
was in one of the grand rooms in Carlton House,
where he had been to see how the Prince was, and
that there the tables were all set out with such
grand plate for an entertainment, that he could not
help exclaiming to himself, 4 What a difference !'

It was now and then amusing to hear Nollekens
read the newspaper to his wife in his most audible
voice, when she was unable to read it to him a
practice in which she indulged him from the period
of her marriage till she became much affected by a
paralytic seizure, which deprived her of that power.
He gave up a considerable portion of the day for
that description of mutual amusement, for so I may
fairly state it to have been, as he was perfectly and
equally satisfied with his own method of reading it
for he read the paper entirely through, beginning
with the play -bills and ending with the editor's
address. His partner, however, notwithstanding
her serious affliction, was often led into a smile by

NOLLE KENS' DIARY 347

his misnomers and bad pronunciation, which were
at times most whimsically ridiculous.

Before he became the reader of these daily
papers, he frequently amused himself by recording
on the covers of letters what he considered curious
daily events ; and by looking over these scraps he
was not only pleased, but would endeavour to amuse
his friends by now and then reading them aloud.
As for works on art, he cared for neither Shee's
4 Rhymes,' Flaxman's c Homer,' nor Blake's c Songs
of Innocence.'

The following memoranda were copied from the
back of one of his charcoal sketches, and will at
once convince the reader of the estimation in which
he sometimes held his leisure moments :

' 1803, May 23d. Lady Newborough brought forth a second sun.
Sweep the parlour and kitchen chimneys. Clean the cestern in the
kitchen. Lent Northcot the cable rope and the piece of hoke tre.

1 1805, Dec. 30. Mrs. Whiteford brought to bed of a sun.

1 180G, Feb. 8th. Died Mrs. Peck, in Marlbrough-street.

4 April 14th. The Duke of Gloster came to my house.

' June 28th. The Duke and Duches of York came to my house.

'July 7th. His R. H. the Duke of Cumberland made me a visit.

' July 19th. Lord Wellesley began to set.

* August 4th. Sent to Lord Yarborough the head of Sir Isack
Nuton.

* 1808, December 16th. Sent Mr. Bignell, by order of Lady Jersey,
Lord Jersey's head in a case.

' 1809, Jan. 12th. Cast-off Mr. Pitt for Mr. Wilberforce, by order
of Lord Muncaster.

'April J lth. The Dukes of York, Cumberland, and Cambridge
made me a visit.'

Mr. Nollekens, when modelling the statue of Pitt
for the Senate House, Cambridge, threw his drapery
over his man Doclimy, who, after standing in an

348 NOLLE KENS AND HIS TIMES

immovable position for the unconscionable space of
two hours, had permission to come down and rest
himself ; but the poor fellow found himself so stiff
that he could not move. 4 What !' exclaimed Nolle-
kens, c can't you move yourself ? Then you had
better stop a bit.' I am sorry to say there are
other artists who go on painting with as little com-
passion for their models.

Mr. Arminger has declared that in eating nothing
could exceed the meanness of Mr. and Mrs. Nolle-
kens, for whenever they had a present of a leveret,
which they always called a hare, they contrived, by
splitting it, to make it last for two dinners for four
persons. The one half was roasted, and the other
jugged.

Much has been said respecting those sculptors
who have employed painters to make designs for
their monuments. How far such assertions are
correct at the present moment I will not take upon
myself to say ; but this I know, that Sir Joshua
made a sketch of his idea of what Mr. Nollekens'
monument erected to the memory of the three
captains should be, and which certainly was attended
to by the sculptor in his composition.

To the eternal honour of Mr. Nollekens, w r ho
was unquestionably a most curious compound of
misery and affluence, it should be recorded that he
gave 25 as his subscription to the widows and
children of the brave soldiers who were killed or
wounded in the glorious battle of Waterloo.

It is reported that once when Nollekens was
walking round the yard with a brother artist, he

AT THE BEDSIDE OF VOLPONE 349

was questioned by him why he kept so many small
pieces of marble, to which Nollekens replied :
; They'll all come into use.' ' What's the use of
this lump ?' asked his friend. ' Oh, that will do for
a small busto.' t Why, it's only seven inches thick.'
4 Ay, but then, you know, I shall model a busto for
that piece with the head twisted, looking over the
shoulder !'

About this time it was highly amusing to witness
the great variety of trifling presents and frivolous
messages which he daily received. One person
was particularly desirous to be informed where he
liked his cheese-cakes purchased ; another, who
ventured to buy stale tarts from a shop in his
neighbourhood, sent his servant in a laced livery in
the evening to inquire whether his cook had made
them to his taste ; while a third continued con-
stantly to ply him with the very best pig -tail
tobacco, which he had most carefully cut in very
small pieces purposely for him. A fourth truly
kind friend, who was not inclined to spend money
upon such speculations himself, endeavoured once
more to persuade him to take a cockney ride in a
hackney-coach to Kensington, to view the pretty
almond-tree in perfect blossom, and to accept of a
few gooseberries to carry home with him to make a
tartlet for himself ! A fifth sent him jellies, or
sometimes a chicken, with gravy ready made, in a
silver butter-boat ; and a sixth regularly presented
him with a change of large showy plants to stand
on the mahogany table, especially in his later years,
when he was a valetudinarian, so that he might see

NOLLEKENS AND HIS TIMES

them from his bed. The sight of these plants cer-
tainly amused him, but as for the delightful odour
they diffused, it mattered not to him, as his olfac-
tories were not over delicate, a carrion flower or a
marigold being equally refreshing to him as a sprig
of jessamine or mignonette.

It is a verv curious fact that during seventy
years' constant practice in his art Nollekens was
never known to hold up or to admire the elegance
of a tendril, or even the leaf of a plant, nor to take
casts of those simple and beautiful productions of
Nature, the lily, the vine, the ivy, the olive-branch,
the laurel, or the oak, which so often have been
introduced in all ages and countries in monumental
sculpture. This, however, is not the case with
artists of the present day.

Flaxman, whose mind was elegance itself, was
never more delighted than in the accumulation of
such examples, nor has any sculptor displayed them
with greater taste ; and we find by the splendid and
inestimable collection of foliated ornaments so
liberally and tastefully displayed on the walls of
the staircase and painting-rooms of Sir Thomas
Lawrence, in his house in Russell Square, that the
ancient Greeks and Romans carefully and exten-
sively studied that luxuriant branch of their art,
particularly in their architectural decorations.

Thus far, too, Mr. Soane 1 may be considered
correct in his assertion that the sculptors art is the
' lace- work of architecture ' ; but that gentleman

1 This eminent architect became Sir John Soane in 1830. He died
in 1837, at the age of eighty-four. Ed.

ARCHITECTURE 351

surely never could mean to say that busts, figures
in niches, and groups of historical composition were
ever meant to be so considered. Such a degrada-
tion, I believe, was never attempted. Indeed, it has
been a matter of strong contention whether sculp-
ture should not take the precedence of painting.
Architecture should certainly be the last- mentioned
of the sister arts, whatever ideas some architects
may entertain upon the subject. Men of true taste
visit a mansion upon the report of its statues, busts,
and pictures. The architecture of a house, un-
adorned by such productions of art, would not
induce the general traveller to drive twenty miles
out of his road, or even five. How few allure-
ments, indeed, would the Marquis of Lansdowne's,
Lord Pembroke's, Lord Egremont's, Lord Farn-
borough's, Sir Abraham Hume's, Mr. Peel's, and
many other noble mansions have, if totally desti-
tute of their fine collections of statues and pictures !
and however delightful maybe the society of the
truly amiable brothers, Samuel and Henry Rogers,
surely their visitors receive double pleasure in
being surrounded not only with some of the finest
specimens of ancient art, but by the choicest works
of Sir Joshua Reynolds, Wilson, Stothard, and
other professors of the highest eminence and merit.

[ 352 ]

CHAPTER XV.

Cause of Mr. Nollekens dismissing his confessor Songs of his youthful
days His bed Unquiet nights productive of charity Liberality to
his domestics Coarseness of his food and manner of eating In-
feriority of his wardrobe, and meanness of his domestic arrange-
ments - Character of his drawings and those of other sculptors His
monumental designs and models Infirmity of his latter days, and
death Attested copy of his will and codicils.

One rainy morning Nollekens, after confession,
invited his holy father to stay till the weather
cleared up. The wet, however, continued till
dinner was ready, and Nollekeng felt obliged to ask
the priest to partake of a bird, one of the last of a
present from his Grace the Duke of Newcastle.
Down they sat. The reverend man helped his host
to a wing, and then carved for himself, assuring
Nollekens that he never indulged in much food,
though he soon picked the rest of the bones. ' I
have no pudding,' said Nollekens ; ' but won't you
have a glass of wine ? Oh, you have got some ale !'
However, Bronzo brought in a bottle of wine ; and
on the remove Nollekens, after taking a glass,
went, as usual, to sleep.

The priest, after enjoying himself, was desired

NOLLEKENS HABITS 353

by Nollekens, while removing the handkerchief
from his head, to take another glass. c Tank yon,
sare, I have a finish de bottel.' \ The devil you
have !' muttered Nollekens. \ Now, sare,' continued
his reverence, ' ass de rain be ovare, I vil take my
leaf.' c Well, do so,' said Nollekens, who was not
only determined to let him go without his coffee,
but gave strict orders to Bronze not to let the old
rascal in again. ' Why, do you know,' continued
he, ' that he ate up all that large bird, for he only
gave me one wing ; and he swallowed all the ale,
and out of a whole bottle of wine I had only one

glass!'

After this, being without a confessor, Mrs. Holt,
his kind attendant, read his prayers to him ; but
when she had gone through them, his feelings were
so little affected by his religious duties, that he
always made her conclude her labours by reading
either 4 Gay's Fables ' or ' The Beggar's Opera,' at
the latter of which, when she came to certain songs,
he would laugh most heartily, saying : c I used to
sing them songs once ; and it was when I was
courting my Polly.'

I recollect that the bedstead upon which Mr.
Nollekens slept of late years was four-posted, the
curtains being yellow, orange, red, and black, and
when first put up they made a most gorgeous
display, though he had for many years but one
counterpane, of which he was so extremely choice
that he would not suffer it to be washed ; but Mrs.
Holt, being ashamed to see it, put on one of her
own of a much superior quality. When he saw it

23

354 NOLLEKENS AND HIS TIMES

upon the bed lie swore at her, and asked her why
it had been washed ; but upon her informing him
that it was one of her own, he allowed it to remain,
saying, ' Well, indeed, it does look very comfort-
able.' When this counterpane required washing,
Mrs. Holt put on his own, at which he angrily cried
out : ' I won't have it on ; I always sleep better
without one. I don't like a counterpane ;' to which
she answered that ' the poorest creature in a
workhouse had a rug on his bed, and that she would
have it on.'

Mrs. Holt, to whom I am obliged for many
particulars in this volume, who had by her
amiable disposition and strict attention to cleanli-
ness rendered the two last years of Mr. Nollekens'
life more comfortable than any period of his
existence, informed me that when he could not rest
in his bed, he would frequently endeavour to raise
himself up, and call to her to know if she was
asleep. Mrs. Holt, who rested upon a hard sofa
by the side of his bed, would answer : l I'm here,
sir. Can I give you anything ?' Nollekens : ' Sit
up ; I can't sleep I can't rest. Is there anybody
that I know that wants a little money to do 'em

good ?' Mrs. Holt: \ Yes, sir ; there is Mrs. .'

Nollekens : c Well, in the morning I'll send her ten
pounds.' c That's a good old boy,' said she, patting
him on the back ; ' you will eat a better dinner for
to-morrow, and enjoy it.' And Mrs. Holt has added
that she never knew him to forget his promise.

With all his propensity for saving, he indulged
for many years in the gratification of making his

COFFEE AND TEA 355

household domestics a present of a little sum of
money on his birthday ; and lately, upon this
occasion, he became even more generous, by
bestowing on them, to their great astonishment,
ten and twenty pounds each.

A broad-necked gooseberry bottle, leather-
bunged, containing coffee, which had been pur-
chased and ground full forty years, was brought
out when he intended to give a particular friend a
treat ; .but it was so dried to the sides of the
bottle that it was with difficulty he could scrape
together enough for the purpose, and even when it
was made, time had so altered its properties, from
the top having been but half closed, that it was
impossible to tell what it had originally been. He
used to say, however, of this turbid mixture :
4 Some people fine their coffee with the skin of a
sole, but for my part, I think this is clear enough
for anybody!'

Mrs. Wilson, a most amiable lady, one of the
daughters of Mr. Major, 1 the late celebrated
engraver of the Stamp Office, was once asked to
stay and drink tea with him. As Mr. Nollekens
was putting in more tea than he would for himself,
he was stopped by Mrs. Wilson, who observed that
she was afraid he had misunderstood her, for she
could not stay ; on which he muttered, 4 Oh, I'm
glad you spoke !' and then returned half the tea out
of the pot to the canister. I do not wonder that so

1 Thomas Major, A.E. (1720-1799), the first engraver elected into
the Royal Academy. He was for forty years Engraver to the King.
Ed.

356 NOLLEKENS AND HIS TIMES

elegant a woman as Mrs. Wilson declined his
invitation, particularly at this time, when the
paralytic seizures which he had undergone rendered
his society at some times insupportable, for, in-
dependent of his natural stupidity and ignorance
in conversation, his bodily humours appeared in
several parts of his person as well as his face,
which was seldom free from eruptions, particularly
about his mouth.

Indeed, poor man ! his appearance and want of
decent manners rendered it impossible for anyone
accustomed to tolerable society to associate with
him ; and yet there were persons, whose servants
would send such an object from their master's door,
who actually sat down and partook of his boiled
rabbit smothered with parsley and butter, even
when he had thick napkins four times doubled
under his chin. For my own part, I must say
I always declined accepting an invitation, though
I have seen ladies arrive in their carriages, with an
expectation of being remembered when next he
made his will, for it was pretty well known that, in
the course of the last twenty-five years, he had
made several, in some of which he had remembered
all his old friends. However, I shall for the present
drop this subject, and state to my readers the few
amusements which he enjoyed at this period.

His principal attendant, Goblet, who at this time
was empowered with the full control of the studio,
stone-yard, and gate, cleared a space of ground
which he formed into a small garden, purposely to
be viewed from a window of an upper room, into

WARDROBES 357

which he and Mrs. Holt, and sometimes poor Bronze,
guided the castored chair with the man who had for
years repeatedly promised to make them all happy
for life.

Of these three persons, Mr. Nollekens made the
most free Avith Bronze ; he listened to her silly
nonsense with the full expectation of hearing what
she had often said, and then would joke in his way
in return ; and though she was not over-cleanly in
her domestic habits or person, he voraciously ate
the food prepared by her hands. His attendant,
Mrs. Holt, always cooked her own dinner ; for
lately, though Nollekens' savoury dish was some-
times relished by a crafty visitor, she declined
eating with him, well knowing how negligent Bronze
was as to the state of her culinary articles before
she used them. Indeed, Bronze, in her gray-haired
state, became addicted to drinking, and then Mrs.
Holt would not allow her to dress anything more for
her master, but kindly cooked his dinner herself.

Perhaps there never was a Royal Academician,
or even a servant of one, whose wardrobes were so
scantily provided with change of dress as those of
Mr. Nollekens and his old servant Bronze. He had
but one nightcap, two shirts, and three pairs of
stockings ; two coats, one of them his pourpre de
pape, one pair of small-clothes, and two waistcoats.
His shoes had been repeatedly mended and nailed ;
they were two odd ones, and the best of his last
two pair. This was the amount of his dress :
indeed, so niggardly was he as to his clothes, that
when Mrs. Holt took possession of his effects, she

358 NOLLEKENS AND HIS TIMES

declared she would not live with him unless he had
a new coat and waistcoat. With this reasonable
request he complied, saying nothing about any other
part of his dress.

Poor Bronze, who had to support herself upon
what were called board-wages, had barely a change,
and looked more like the wife of a chimney-
sweeper than any other kind of. human being. As
for table linen, two small breakfast-napkins and a
large old tablecloth, a descendant in the family,
which, when used, was always folded into four,
was the whole of his stock ; for he possessed no
doileys, and Bronze declared to me that she had
never seen such a thing as a jack-towel in the
house, nor even the nail-holes where one had been.
She always washed without soap: there were no
hearth -stones nor blacklead dust for the stoves ;
nor a cake of whitening for the kitchen-grate ; nor
even a yard of oil- cloth to preserve the stones from
grease, much less an old bit of bedside carpet, to
keep the bones of poor old Bronze free from
rheumatism.

In this state Mrs. Holt found things at No. 9,
Mortimer Street, and in a worse condition did they
appear when the secrets of the prison-house were
laid open, as will be found after the insertion of Mr.
Nollekens' will in a future page of this volume.

Of late years he diverted himself with several
sketch-books filled with outlines and measurements
of busts, statues, groups, and basso-relievos, which
he had most industriously and carefully made
during his residence in Italy from numerous

NOLLEKENS SKETCHES 359

fragments, and several celebrated antiques in the
Vatican, the Palaces, and Villas Bassano, Belvidere,
Bologna, Borghese, Frascati, Giustiniani, Loretto,
Mantua, Massani, Tivoli, etc.

These sketch-books, which are now mostly in the
possession of Mrs. Palmer, may very justly be con-
sidered to contain some of his best drawings, and
are beyond doubt most valuable memoranda. Of
the interesting subjects delineated particularly as
to their measurements, which in my belief are
strictly accurate the outlines in my mind bear too
visibly the cold hand of perseverance only, since
they are not executed with anything like the feel-
ing with which Flaxman drew ; and when compared
with his Italian studies, also made from some of
the same antiques, they fall far short of the mind
visible in everything Flaxman touched, even in his
earliest years.

However this may be, and feebly as Nollekens'
copies were made, he unquestionably not only con-
siderably out-stripped his master Scheemakers, but,
to do him only common justice, his strides were
considered greatly beyond the usual extent of the
abilities in drawing of the sculptors of his early
days Eysbrack excepted, whose drawings, though
certainly considerably mannered, possess a fertility
of invention and a spirit of style in their execution
seldom emanating from the hand of a sculptor of
modern times. They are for the most part washed
in bistre, and are frequently to be met with.
Painters, and indeed engravers, at that time were
much better draughtsmen than the sculptors. There

360 NOLLEKENS AND HIS TIMES

were Moser, Mortimer, Cipriani, West, Barry,
Bartolozzi, Sherwin, Ryland, Strutt, Legat, and
Grignon, wlio drew the figure well. Since their
time we have been enabled to boast of Blake,
Flaxman, Lawrence, Stothard, Burney, Ryley,
Howard, Hilton, Etty, Briggs, and Morton, all
faithful and constant delineators of form and
muscular action. Michael Angelo's productions as
a draughtsman were divinely magnificent, and they
are pre-eminently placed in all collections where
they are to be found ; he drew with the pen or
charcoal, and also in red chalk, but most of his
finest drawings are in black chalk, in which he
seemed to delight, if we may judge from the
exquisite manner in which many of them are
finished. When I had the honour of viewing Sir
Thomas Lawrence's princely collection of drawings
by Michael Angelo and Raffaelle, their productions
alone engaged my admiration from seven o'clock
till past eleven. Jeremiah Harman, Esq., has also
some most powerful drawings by Michael Angelo,
which were brought into England by W. Y. Ottley,
Esq.

During Nollekens' juvenile practice he received
a few lessons in drawing from a sculptor now but
little known, Michel Henry Spang, a Dane, 1 who
drew the figure beautifully and with anatomical
truth a most essential component of the art, in-

1 Spang, who produced that small anatomical figure so well known
to every draughtsman who assiduously studies his art. He also de-
signed and executed the Ggures on the pediment of Earl Spencer's
house in the Green Park, and the decorations on the screen at the
dmiralty. Smith. Spang died about 1767. Ed.

NOLLE KENS AS A SCULPTOR 361

dispensably requisite for all those who would climb
to the summit of Fame ; but this invaluable ac-
quirement was neglected by Nollekens, nor did he
at any period of his life venture to carve a subject
in which a knowledge of anatomy would have been
extensively wanted : his naked figures were of the
most simple class, being either a young Bacchus, a
Diana, or a Venus, with limbs sleek, plump, and
round ; but I never knew him, like Banks, to
attempt the grandeur of a Jupiter or even the
strength of a gladiator. His monumental effigies,
too, were always so draped and placid that very
little expression of muscle was exercised. Nolle-
kens' large academical drawings, made when he
was Visitor in the Royal Academy, were feebly
executed : his men were destitute of animation, and
his females often lame in the joints ; their faces
were usually finished up at home from his wife, and
in compliment to her he generally contrived to give
them little noses.

There were in the Academy at the time when
Mr. Nollekens was Visitor, three young sculptors
who drew remarkably well Flaxman, Proctor 1 and
Deare whose abilities were so much noticed by
their fellow -students that Nollekens gave up his
practice of drawing for that of modelling the figure
in basso-relievo, and many of his productions pos-
sessed great merit. Having throughout his long
life had fewer vexations than most men, by reason
of his natural imbecility, he was on all occasions

1 Thomas Proctor, the sculptor and painter (1753-1793). See
Prefatory Essay. Ed.

362 NOLLEKENS AND HIS TIMES

industriously inclined to his art, and was never
known to riot in dissipation ; on the contrary,
whenever he was not engaged in modelling, he
employed himself, particularly in the evening, in
making designs upon the backs of letters and other
scraps of paper for every description of monument
of the simple kind, such as a female weeping or
entwining festoons of flowers over an urn, or a
child with an inverted torch ; and for one and the
same monument I have known him make half a
dozen or more trials.

Quantities of these sketches were purchased at
his auction by Mrs. Palmer, who, having so many
of his works, at one time had an idea of building a
room for their reception, as I have been informed
by Mr. Taylor, 1 the pupil of Frank Hayman, who
still continues an inquisitive and communicative
man, notwithstanding his great age, which now and
then screens him from the retort courteous.

These sketches were often in pencil, or some-
times finished in Indian ink, but many of his later
ones were drawn only with charcoal ; he kept them
always at hand to show a gentleman who had lost
his wife, or a lady who had been deprived of her
husband or child ; and he has often been heard to
say when he has received an order for a monu-
ment, c You see, I take 'em when the tear's in the eye.'

The greatest pleasure our sculptor ever received
was when modelling small figures in clay, either
singly or in groups, which he had baked ; and in

1 John Taylor, known as 'Old Taylor,' long outlived Smith, and
died in 1838, in his ninety-ninth year. Ed.

MODELS 363

consequence of his refusing to sell them, and giving
very few away, they became so extremely numerous
that they not only afforded a great display of his in-
dustry, hut considerable entertainment to his friends.

His talent in this way was esteemed superior to
many things executed by him of a large size, and it
would ill become me, after venturing to amuse my
readers with my old master's weaknesses, if T were,
by my silence upon these beautiful models, to deprive
him of one particle of that share of praise to which
he was so deservedly entitled for their composition
and spirit ; for though he was but a poor artist as
a draughtsman, no one equalled him in his time as
a modeller, particularly in his Venuses. There is
in some of them, notwithstanding their want of
that grace which he might have derived from the
antique, a luxuriant display of Nature's elegance,
of which there was then no sculptor better able to
make a selection.

His models towards the decline of his practice
were not possessed of much variety of composition ;
and as for his attempts in his latter years, they
very much resembled the productions of a dozing
man. However, I will still do him the justice to
own that they were in some points natural, and to
the last evinced a strong attachment to his branch
of the art, although produced in his second child-
hood. As a proof of my assertion, Sir William
Beechey has a little group, possessing much merit,
which Nollekens modelled from his design only a
short time before his last attack ; though he would
then occasionally leave off and give Bronze, his

364 NOLLEKENS AND HIS TIMES

poor old servant, money to dance his favourite cat,
c Jenny Dawdle,' round about the room to please
him, and at which he would always laugh himself
heartily into a fit of coughing, and continue to
laugh and cough, with tears of pleasure trickling
down his cheeks upon his bib, until Bronze declared
the cat to be quite tired enough for that morning.
This cat, the favourite of her master, his constant
companion at his breakfast and dinner table, being
no longer praised and petted by her master's visitors
after his death, was kindly rescued from unthinking
boys, or the stealers of cats for the sake of their
skins, by Mrs. Holt, who took her to her home,
which she had left to oblige Mr. Nollekens, where
it now enjoys a warm-hearted fireside friend. As
for the fate of poor Bronze, alas ! a future page
will declare it.

In this state of imbecility he continued to exist
for a considerable time, under the kind superintend-
ence of his housekeeper, Mrs. Holt, who deserves
the highest praise for the feeling manner in which
she watched over him. As for his faithful servant
poor Betty, whose name was dropped at the begin-
ning of this work for that of Bronze, she was too
old and feeble to do much ; her hair had become
gray in his service, and she was not altogether
unlike the figure of the poor old soul so wretchedly
employed in lighting the fire in the miser's room,
represented by Hogarth in his first plate of 'The
Rake's Progress.' Goblet, his principal carver, who
had slept in the house for some months, was at all
times ready, night and day, to render him every

THE WILL 365

assistance in his power, for which he had been
induced to give up his own domestic comforts.
His medical attendant was Sir Anthony Carlisle, 1
who for a long time had visited him at all hours,
and who was always with him at the shortest
possible notice, and whose kind and skilful hand
frequently relieved his sufferings, for he had been
visited in the course of his life with three paralytic
seizures.

Under these circumstances Mr. Nollekens at length
departed this life in the drawing-room on the first
floor, at the south-east corner of his house, April 23,
1823, in the presence of Mrs. Holt and Mr. Goblet,
who immediately sent to inform the three executors,
of which number he had, upon the death of my
honoured friend, the Rev. Edward Balme, chosen
me to be one. I considered it my duty to attend
the same day, when I found Sir William Beechey.
The next day Mr. Douce met us, and the will was
read. The following is an attested copy.

This is the last Will and Testament of me, Joseph Nollekens,
of Mortimer-street, in the Parish of St. Mary-le-bone, in the County
of Middlesex, Esquire : I desire that my body be decently deposited
in the vault under the parish church of Paddington, in the said
County ; and that there be not any scarfs given at my funeral, but
that I be buried in a plain black coffin, without any gilt ornaments.
And that all such just debts as I shall owe at the time of my decease,
and my funeral and testamentary charges and expenses be paid and
satisfied. I give to Mrs. Frances Burslem, of Michleover, in the
County of Derby, the sum of two hundred pounds. I give to Mrs.
Mary Lee, late the widow of my esteemed friend Caleb Whitefoord,
Esquire, deceased, the sum of one hundred pounds, to be paid into
her own proper hands, for her sole and separate use, and for which

1 The eminent surgeon and physiologist (1768-1840). Ed.

366 NOLLEKENS AND HIS TIMES

her receipt alone (notwithstanding her coverture) shall be a sufficient
discharge to my Executors hereinafter named. I give to Mr. Lee,
the husband of the said Mary Lee, the sum of five hundred pounds,
in trust for Maria Whiteford, Caleb Whiteford, Charles Whiteford,
Harriet Whiteford, and John Whiteford, children of the said Mary
Lee, by her said former husband, in equal shares, and to be paid them
at their respective ages of twenty-one years ; but if any, or either of
them, shall happen to die before attaining that age, then as to the
parts of him, her, or them, so dying, in trust for the survivors or
survivor of them, equally between such survivors, if more than one ;
and the interest of their said several shares to be in the meantime
paid or applied towards their respective maintenance or education.
And I direct that the receipt of the said Mr. Lee shall be a sufficient
discharge to my Executors for the same legacy. And that they shall
not afterwards be liable to see to the application or disposition of the
said legacy, or any part thereof, I give to the said Mr. Lee the sum
of one hundred pounds, as an acknowledgment for the trouble he
will have in the execution of the aforesaid trust. I give to Mary
Ann Bonomi, Agnes Bonomi, Justina Bonomi, Ignatius Bonomi,
Joseph Bonomi, and Charles Bonomi, children of my late friend
Mrs. Rosa Bonomi, one hundred pounds each, to be paid them at
their respective ages of twenty-one years ; but if any, or either of
them, shall happen to die before attaining that age, then I give the
aforesaid legacy or legacies of him, her, or them, so dying, unto the
survivors or survivor of them, equally between such survivors, if
more than one. And I direct that the interest of their said several
legacies may, if deemed necessary, be in the meantime paid or applied
towards their respective maintenance or education. I give to my
friend Mrs. Mary Lloyd, widow of the late Captain Hugh Lloyd, one
hundred pounds. I give to my friend Sir William Beechey two
hundred pounds. I give to Mrs. Mary Zoffany three hundred
pounds. I give to Mrs. Green, widow of the late Yalentine Green,
one hundred pounds. I give to my worthy friend, Francis Douce,
Esquire, the book of all my prints by Albert Durer, together with
the print of the Triumphant Arch of the Emperor Maximilian ; also
the golden medallion which I obtained at Rome, in the year One
Thousand Seven Hundred and Sixty-eight ; but I request that he
do, at his decease, leave and bequeath the said prints unto the British
Museum. I give to my worthy friend, the Reverend Mr. Kerrick,
one hundred pounds ; and I desire that he the said Mr. Kerrick do
select from my Prints of Reubens, twelve of them for his collection,
and which twelve Prints I hereby bequeath tr him. I give to my

THE WILL 367

old friend, Benjamin West, Esquire, one hundred pounds, with the
model of his bust. I give to my old friend, Richard Cosway, Esquire,
one hundred pounds. I give to the Reverend Mr. Wollaston, of
South Weale, one hundred pounds, as a token of my regard for him.
I give to my old friend, Mr. J. Taylor, of Cirencester-place, Mary-
]e-bone, one hundred pounds. I give and remit to my friend, Mrs.
Elizabeth Rumsey, the principal and interest due from her to me, on
her promissory note for one hundred pounds ; and I direct that the
said note be delivered up to her to be cancelled. I give to my esteemed
friend, Mrs. Walford, one hundred pounds. I give to Mr. Charles
Robertson, of Great Marlborough-street, fifty pounds, as a testimony
of the regard I have for him. I give to Mrs. Byrne, widow of the
late Mr. Byrne, Engraver, one hundred pounds. I give to Miss
Susanna Devins, two hundred pounds. I give to the Reverend
Doctor Charles Symmons, two hundred pounds. I give to Mr. John
Woodcock, cousin of my late dear wife, three hundred pounds. I
give to Mr. John Soilleux, of Notting-hill, Kensington, one hundred
pounds. I give to Doctor Rudeman, of Bryanstone- street, fifty
pounds. I give to Mrs. Mary Holt, fifty pounds. I give to Mrs.
Gerrard, nineteen guineas. I give to Hancock, my Hair-dresser,
nineteen guineas. I give to Mary Bailleux, now in Saint George's
workhouse, forty pounds. I give to Mrs. Henshall, nineteen guineas.
I give to Elizabeth Clements, my servant, nineteen guineas. I give
to Mary Fearey, my late servant, all my wearing apparel, clothes,
and body-linen. I give to Sebastian Gahagan, Alexander Goblet, and
George Lupton, three of my workmen, one hundred pounds each,
to be paid as soon as convenient after my decease ; and to George
Gahagan, another of my said workmen, twenty pounds, to be paid
in like manner. I give to Louisa Goblet, daughter of the said
Alexander Goblet, thirty pounds. I give to the said Mary Fearey,
to Ann Clibbon, my late servant, and to Dodemy, (another of my
workmen) an annuity of thirty pounds to each of them, for their
respective lives, to be paid by equal half yearly payments, the first
of such payments to be made at the end of six calendar months next
after my decease. I give to the Trustees or Treasurer, for the time
being, of the Saint Patrick Orphan Charity School, three hundred
pounds for the benefit of the said school. I give to the Treasurer
or Treasurers of the Middlesex Hospital, three hundred pounds for
the benefit of the said hospital. I give to the Treasurer or Treasurers
of the Parish Charity School of Saint Mary-le-bone, three hundred
pounds for the benefit of the said school. I give to the Treasurer or
Treasurers of the Society for the Relief of Persons imprisoned for

368 NOLLEKENS AND HIS TIMES

Small Debts, three hundred pounds, for the purposes of the said
society. I give to the Treasurer or Treasurers of the Meeting or
Contribution for the Relief of distressed Seamen, held at the King's
Head Tavern in the Poultry, nineteen guineas, to be applied for the
purposes of the said meeting. I desire that my collection of virtu
in antiques, marbles, busts, models, printed books, prints, and draw-
ings, (except such books and prints as I have hereinbefore given)
be sold by public auction ; and that the said Alexander Goblet be
employed to arrange, repair, and clean my said marbles, busts, and
models, to fit them for sale, under the direction of my executors ;
and that he, the said Alexander Goblet, be paid for his trouble
therein, at the rate of one guinea per day, during such time as he
shall be so engaged, and which I suppose may be effected in three or
four days ; and I desire that my said antiques, marbles, busts, models,
books, prints, and drawings, (except as aforesaid,) be sold by Mr.
Christie, of Pall Mall. I give to the said Francis Douce, Esquire,
and to the Reverend Edward Balme, the Executors of this my Will,
five hundred pounds each, as an acknowledgement for their trouble.
I give to Mrs. Sadler my leasehold house, situate and being No. 66,
Great Portland-street, now in her occupation ; and all my estate,
term, and interest therein. I give to Mrs. Hawkins my leasehold
house, situate in Edward-street, Manchester-square, now in her occu-
pation ; and all my estate, term, and interest therein. I give to
Jasper Peck, Esquire, my four leasehold houses, situate in St. James's-
street ; my four other houses, situate in Edward-street, aforesaid ;
my two ground-rents of two houses, in the same street ; my leasehold
house in Margaret-street, Cavendish-square ; and my two corner houses
in Norton-street and Clipstone-street, and all my estate and interest
therein respectively. And as to my property in the funds at the
Bank of England, the monies to arise by the sales hereinbefore
directed, the debts that shall be owing to me at my decease, and all
other the residue of my estate and effects whatsoever, I give the same
to Mr. Francis Russell Palmer, of Cumberland-place, New-road, and
the said Francis Douce, and Mr. Edward Balme, equally to be divided,
between them. And I appoint the said Francis Douce and Edward
Balme, Executors of this my Will. And I declare that they, or either
of them, or their respective Executors, shall not be charged or charge-
able with, or answerable or accountable for any loss or damage that
may happen of or to my estate and effects, or any part thereof, so
as the same happens without their wilful neglect or default ; and that
they, or any, or either of them, shall not be answerable or accountable
for the others or other of them, or for the receipts, payments, acts*

THE WILL 369

neglects, or defaults of the others or other of them, but each of them
only for himself, and his own receipts, payments, acts, neglects, and
defaults. And that they my said Executors, and their respective
Executors, shall and may, by, from, and out of my estate and effects,
or any part thereof, deduct, retain, and reimburse himself and them-
selves respectively, all such costs, charges, and expenses as they shall
respectively pay, sustain, or be put unto, in or about the execution of
this my Will or relating thereto.. And I do hereby revoke and make
void all and every other will and wills by me at any time or times
heretofore made, and do publish and declare this to be my last Will
and Testament. In witness whereof, I have to this my last Will and
Testament contained in three sheets of paper, set my hand and seal
(that is to say) have set my hand to the two first sheets, and to this
third and last sheet have set my hand and seal, this twenty-first day
of March, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and
eighteen.

Joseph Nollekens, l.s.
Signed, sealed, published and declared by the said Joseph
Nollekens the Testator, as and for his last Will and Testa-
ment in the presence of us who at his request in his presence,
and in the presence of each other, have subscribed our names
as witnesses thereunto.

Henry Jeanneret, ) _

-c, n n f Golden-square.

Edward Cary Grojan, 3 *

No. 1.

I give to Mrs. Harness of Stanmore in the County of Middlesex a
Cousin of my late dear wife Mary Nollekens, three hundred pounds
and I publish and declare this to be a Codicil to my foregoing Will
witness my hand and seal this twenty seventh day of March one
thousand eight hundred and eighteen.

Joseph Nollekens, l.s.
Signed sealed and published by the
said Joseph Nollekens in the pre-
sence of us

Henry Jeanneret,
W. T. Stubbs.

No. 2.

I will and direct that the annuity of thirty pounds by my Will
given to Mary Fearey therein named be increased to an annuity of
fifty pounds and that the annuity of thirty pounds by my said Will
given to Ann Clibbon therein also named be increased to an annuity of

24

37o NOLLEKENS AND HIS TIMES

forty pounds which increased annuities I give to them respectively (in
lieu of the said annuities given them by my said Will) and to be paid
half yearly as in my said Will mentioned I give to Mr. Henshall of
Mortimer street Stone Mason (over and above the legacy by my said
Will given to Mrs. Henshall his wife) the sum of one hundred pounds
and I publish and declare this to be a further Codicil to my said Will,
witness my hand and seal this twenty fourth day of June, one
thousand eight hundred and eighteen.

Joseph Nollekens, l.s.
Signed, sealed, and published by the
said Joseph Nollekens, in the pre-
sence of us,

Henry Jeanneret,
Edw. Cary Grojan.

No. 3.

Has a presant to Maria Yerninck, daughter of the "Reverend
Doctor and the Honorable Mrs. Yerninck, of Camberwell, who was
the Goddaughter of my late dear wife Mrs. Nollekens, and was in
May last six years of age the sum of two hundred pounds Also, I
have given to Sophia Baroness de Belmont the sum of two hundred
pounds as a remembrance I had of her late worthy father. God bless
them boath. These are boath paid October the 29th, 1818.

Joseph Nollekens.

I desire that Mr. Carlisle the Surgent be presented with a note of
fifty pounds for his attendance on me.

No. 4.

It is my desier and request that my executors do make a presant of
the sum of two hundred pounds to each of the daughters of Mr. John
Woodcock cousens of my late dear wife Maria Nollekens, that they
shall not be at the expences of the legacy duty videlicit, Mary Ann
Woodcock and her sister Mrs. Cockell, wife of Mr. Cockell, Surgen, of
Bronwick Terrace, Hackney Road this 20th day of November, 1818.

Joseph Nollekens.

(Witness)

Wm. Wingfield,
George-street, Hanover-square.

No. 5.

I revoke the legacy or bequest in my foregoing Will contained of
my property in the funds at the Bank of England the monies to arise
by the sales in my said Will, directed the debts that shall be owing me

CODICILS 371

at my decease, and all other the residue of my estate and effects to Mr.
Francis Russell Palmer, Mr. Francis Douce, and Mr. Edward Balme
equally between them ; and in lieu and stead thereof, I give and
bequeath my said property in the funds at the Bank of England the
said monies to arise by the aforesaid sales, the said debts that shall be
owing to me at my decease and all other the said residue of my estate
and effects whatsoever unto the said Francis Russell Palmer Francis
Douse Edward Balme and the Reverend Mr. Kerrick in my said Will
named equally to be divided between them the said Francis Russell
Palmer Francis Douse Edward Balme and Mr. Kerrick And I
publish and declare this to be a further Codicil to my said Will
Witness my hand and seal this twenty-ninth day of January, One
thousand eight hundred and nineteen.

Joseph Nollekens, l.s.
Signed, sealed, and published by the
said Joseph Nollekens in the pre-
sence of us,

Henry Jeanneret,
W. T. Stubbs.

No. 6.

I do hereby revoke every legacy and bequest by my Will or
Codicils given to or in favour of, Dodemy, and also the legacy of one
hundred pounds to Alexander Goblet and instead of the said last
legacy, I give to the said Alexander Goblet an annuity of thirty
pounds for his life to commence from my decease, and to be payable
half-yearly. Witness my hand and seal the fifteenth day of April*
1819.

Joseph Nollekens, l.s.
(Witness)
Henry Jeanneret.
Joseph Bonomi.

No. 7.

Mortimer street 27th September 1819.

It is my desire that my executors do give as a present from me to
Mrs. Elizabeth Gee widow of No. 4, King-street, Golden-square the
sum of fifty pounds, as a token of my regard for her.

And it is my desire that my executors do give, in the same manner
as above, the sum of fifty pounds to Mrs. Ray, the wife of Lieut. Ray
as a token of my regard for her and her ffamily like of my friend Mr.
Trumbold in America.

And it is my desire that twenty pounds shall be given to Mrs.

372

NOLLEKENS AND HIS TIMES

Rouw the wife of Mr. Rouw the Modler for the regard I have for her,
for her sole use and benefit, and the long slabb of marble in my yard
shall be given to him for his own use. Also, that young Pastorini
shall be given twenty pounds as a token of my regard for him.

And it is my request that in case of the demise of my hair
dresser Hancock a legacy of twenty pounds shall be given to his
daughter.

Joseph Nollekens.
(Signed in the presence of me)
John Worninck, D.D. &c.
Camberwell Grove.

No. 8.

Whereas, by a former memorandum I had directed that the marble
in the yard and the working tools in the study should be equally
divided and one-half of the same given to Mr. Alexander Goblet I
do hereby revoke such former direction and instead thereof do hereby
will and direct that the whole of the said marble and all the working
tools in the study be delivered by my Executors to the said Alexander
Goblet for his sole use and benefit in consideration of his care and
attention to me.

And whereas in the aforesaid memorandum, I had directed that my
books, drawings and prints should be sold by Mr. King, I do hereby
direct that they be sold by Mr. Evans, of Pall Mall.

Joseph Nollekens.

February the 7th, 1820.

No. 9.

It is my desier that I wish that my executors will give as a presant
the sum of fifty guineas unto Henry Goblet for the servises he has

done for me.

J. Nollekens.
August 14th, 1820.

No. 10.

All the working tools in the shop I give to his father with the
marble in the yard and the boards and utenserals for working the jack
I lent to Lupto above a year ago he ought to return it I have paid
and for what.

J. Nollekens.

This 14th of August, 1820.

No. 11.

This 28th day of January, 1822.
Memorandum that in case of my death all the marble in the yard
the tools in the shop Bankers mod tools for carving the rasp in the

CODICILS 373

draw with and the draw in the parlour shall be the property of Alex.

Goblet.

Joseph Nollekens.
(Witness my hand.)
Mary Holt.

No. 12.

Codicil to my Will.
It is my request that the legacy of fifty pounds per annum which I
have left in my Will, besides my cloaths and body linen left to Mary
Fiery, now Mrs. Edmonds, be revoked, and I give the said fifty
pounds per annum to Mary Holt for her life, together with my cloaths
and body linen, for the care she has taken of me in my weak state of
body. This is my desire, to which I set my hand and seal, this thirtieth
day of July, Eighteen Hundred and Twenty-two.

Joseph Nollekens, l.s.
(Witness)
A. H. Chambert.
Wm. Gadsby.

No. 13.

Since executing this Will, the Reverend Edward Balme, one of the
Executors therein named, has departed this life, and I do therefore
appoint as my Executors Sir William Beechy, Knight ; Francis
Douce, Esquire ; and Thomas Smith, Esquire, of the British Museum,
the joint Executors of this my Will ; and I do now hereby give to the
said Sir William Beechy the sum of one hundred pounds for his
trouble, and to the said Thomas Smith one hundred pounds for his
trouble ; I do likewise hereby give and bequeath to Henry Francis
Goblet, the son of Alexander Goblet, one hundred pounds, and to Mrs.
Mary Holt the additional sum of one hundred pounds to what I may
have already given her by this Will, which I do in all other respects
hereby confirm ; as witness my hand, this sixth day of December, One
Thousand Eight Hundred and Twenty-two.

J. Nollekens.

(Signed in the presence of us)
John Meakin.
Thomas Matthew.

No. 14.

It is my desire that my Executors pay to Mr. Peter Rouw, the

Modeller, the sum of one hundred pounds. As witness my hand, this

twenty-eighth day of December, One Thousand Eight Hundred and

Twenty-two.

Joseph Nollekens.

Died April 23rd, 1823.

[374]

CHAPTER XVI.

Funeral of Mr. Nollekens His wardrobe List of his intended
bequests Professional anecdotes of him Modelling in full dress
Taking casts from dead subjects His mask of Mr. Pitt Statue
erected at Cambridge Mrs. Siddons's remarks on it Economy and
profits of the sculptor Bust of Lord Londonderry Economy in
fuel Fuseli's opinion of Nollekens His bust of Mr. Coutts ;
anecdotes of its execution His collection of casts and models-
Wigs painted by Lely and Kneller Wycherley and Fielding wigs
Old system of wig-stealing Mr. Nollekens' features of likeness
in his busts His busts of Mr. Fox.

On the day of the funeral, May 1, 1823, at eleven
o'clock, the hour proposed for the meeting of the
carriages invited to attend it, only four appeared,
namely, the Hon. Thomas Grenville's, Mr. Cham-
bers', Mr. Palmer's ; and last of all, that which
the mob saluted as my Lord Mayor's. The cry
was, ' Lord Mayor ! Lord Mayor !' ' Lord Mayor !'
rejoined the stately coachman, drawing on his
sable glove ; ' the Duke of Wellington's, if you
please Lord Mayor, indeed !' and really the coach
and dressings were truly splendid, and worthy of
so noble a Duke. The Kev. Thomas Kerrick, 1 or,
in true spelling, Kerrich, Principal Librarian to the

1 Thomas Kerrick, of Dersingham, was University Librarian from
1797 to his death in 1828, at the age of eighty. He was a very skilful
architectural and antiquarian draughtsman. Ed.

THE FUNERAL COACHES 375

University of Cambridge, did not appear. The
mourners were all in waiting ; and Mr. Douce
arrived at twelve. The street-lamp-irons and win-
dows were thronged to see ' The Miser's Funeral ;'
and all was now in silent motion.

The first coach contained Francis Douce, Esq.,
an executor, and one of the residuary legatees.
Sir William Beechey, also an executor, but not a
residuary legatee, was obliged to attend his own
interests in touching up his pictures in the Royal
Academy Room, previous to the opening of the
Exhibition. The second in the coach was the late
Dr. Simmonds, of Chiswick, an old and steady
friend to the deceased ; the third was Russel
Palmer, Esq., the son of Mrs. Palmer, an acquaint-
ance of some standing with the deceased ; and the
fourth was myself, an executor, but, like Sir
William Beechey, no residuary legatee. The other
mourners were, Mr. Woodcock, a cousin of Mrs.
Nollekens, to whom a small legacy had been left ;
Mr. Nelson Beechey, for his father -} Mr. Christie,
the auctioneer, the gentleman who sold part of the
property ; Raphael and Benjamin West, Esquires,
sons of the late venerable President ; the Rev.
Stephen Weston ; Mr. Jeanneret, who was sent
for after Mr. Nollekens' death to read the will ;
Mr. Gahagan ; Mr. Goblet, sen., and his son ; Mr.
Rouw, 2 Mr. Taylor, and Mr. Soilleux.

Early on the day of the funeral, when Sir
William Beechey and myself found that Mr. Peck,

1 Sir William Beechey, R.A. Ed.

2 Peter Rouw, jun. (1771-1852), the gem-engraver. Ed.

376 NOLLEKENS AND HIS TIMES

one of Mr. Nollekens' two nearest relations, had
not been included in the list of those invited, we
immediately directed Mr. Turner, the undertaker,
to send a coach to the Temple for that gentleman,
but it arrived too late for him to attend.

Being now in a state of motion, the conversation
between Dr. Simmonds and myself fell upon the
notices in the newspapers respecting the very
extraordinary manner in which it was stated that
Mr. Nollekens' money was to be distributed. As
the coach in which I was turned round Harley
Street, I had a perfect view of the procession, and
the crowd that followed the Duke of Wellington's
carriage was immense ; it was a new one, built for
state occasions. By the time we got into the New
Road, the concourse of people was beyond all
conception ; for it was May-Day, and the chimney-
sweepers in their trappings, and the Jacks-in-the-
green, or Bunter's Garland, had all followed what
they still looked upon as my Lord Mayor's coach.
Indeed, so strongly was this believed by the drivers
of the Paddington stages, whose horses were gaily
decked with ribbons of various dies, that they, out
of respect or fear of the City Magistrate, fell back
and slowly followed the Duke's coach.

Bv the time we had arrived at the Yorkshire
Stingo, a crowd of milkmaids and maidservants,
who had been dancing and drinking on the green
all the morning, so choked up the turnpike, that
for some time a stoppage took place. At last, the
mob finding it to be only a funeral, and that it
was going to Paddington, the greater part of our

EXECUTORS 377

company left us, to follow their accustomed
gambols. On our arrival at the churchyard, Old
Dodimy was waiting to see the last of his master,
with whom had he remained, most likely he would
have had the annuity of thirty pounds once
bequeathed him, but since transferred to Lewis
Goblet, sculptor, as a reward for his long and
faithful services. Before this time, however,
Goblet was not noticed, though he had received
many assurances from Mr. Nollekens that he had
left him and his family comfortably in his will.

When the funeral was over, Mr. Douce returned
from the churchyard to his house in Kensington
Square and most of the other mourners returned
to the house of the deceased, in order to hear the
will read. This I, as an executor, firmly insisted
upon, and it was accordingly read in the presence of
many persons.

Some time was employed by two of the executors
and the three solicitors, in looking over Mr. Nolle-
kens' property, before the will was proved. At
one of these meetings, Mr. Nollekens' wardrobe
was inspected, when we found it to consist of his
court-coat of Pourpre de Pape, in which he was
married ; his hat, sword, and bag ; two shirts, two
pairs of worsted stockings, one table-cloth, three
sheets, and two pillow-cases ; but all these were in
such a state of decay, that, with other rags, Mrs.
Holt informed me she could only procure one
pound jive shillings for her legacy. His smart
green velvet cap, one of the two kindly presented
to him by a lady, Mrs. Holt presented to a friend.

378 NOLLEKENS AND HIS TIMES

During the investigation of his papers, I was in
anxious expectation of finding a will subsequent to
the one produced, as he had been for years in
the habit of signing many wills, in all of which
he assured me he had recollected me and my
family, ' That you may depend upon, Tom,' were his
words. In the year 1810, he showed me a list of the
names of one hundred persons, to every one of whom
he said he intended to leave one thousand pounds !

Mr. Nollekens, who had been extremely intimate
with Mr. Zoffany, when approaching his eightieth
year, offered his hand to his widow, who very
civilly declined it, prudently observing: c No, sir;
the world would then say, She has married him for
his money.' Mrs. Zoffany, when she found poor
Bronze had been set down in his will for only
19 19s., very generously gave Mrs. Holt a guinea
for her, long before she received her own legacy.

Having illustrated the peculiar manners of Mr.
Nollekens in his ordinary life, I shall now intro-
duce a few professional anecdotes of him as an
artist, which will probably be not less amusing to
the reader.

During the time an illustrious personage was
sitting for his bust, he could not refrain from
smiling at his friend, who stood behind Nollekens,
at the truly ridiculous manner in which the artist
had inconvenienced himself for the occasion. His
powdered toupet, 1 which was stiffly pomatumed,

1 Mr. Nollekens, when at Rome, wore his long hair tied up in a
club. When he arrived in England he commenced wearing hair-
powder, and continued the use of it till his hair became thin ; he

TAKING CASTS 379

stood pointedly erect ; and he had, for the first
time, put on a coat, to which the tailor had given
an enormously high buckramed cape, so that, like
Allscrip's, in ' The Heiress,' his head appeared as
if it were in the pillory. To look over this cape,
Nollekens had for some time painfully exerted
himself, by stretching his neck to its fullest pos-
sible extent ; but, as he proceeded with his model,
his body by degrees relaxed, and his head at last
was so completely buried within the cape, that
nothing but the pinnacle of his toupet was visible
above it. This ridiculous exit of Nollekens' head
so operated upon the risibility of the noble sitter,
that, at last, he irresistibly indulged in a liberal fit
of laughter, which so irritated the little sculptor,
who had for some time noticed their smiles, that,
instead of good-temperedly finding fault with the
tailor, he lost sight of propriety, and thrusting his
thumb into the mouth of the model, impetuously
exclaimed, with a treble wag of his head, 4 If you
laugh, I'll make a fool of ye !'

Nollekens, after reading the death of any great
person in the newspaper, generally ordered some
plaster to be got ready, so that he might attend at
a minute's notice. One day, when a lady who had
sent for him desired him not to make so free with
her dear husband's corpse, he observed, ' Oh, bless
ye, you had better let me close his eyelids ; for
then, when I cast him in my mould, he'll look
for all the world as if he was asleep. Why do

then, at the recommendation of Caleb Whitefoord, had it all cut off,
and wore a natural wig without powder. Smith.

380 NOLLEKENS AND HIS TIMES

you take on so ? you do wrong to prey upon such
a dismal prospect ; do leave the room to me and
my man ; I am used to it, it makes no impression
on me ; I have got a good many noted down in my
journal.'

Mr. Sebastian Gahagan, the sculptor, Mr. Nolle-
kens' assistant, attended him to cast the face of
Lord Lake, after his decease ; his lordship's brother
was then inconsolably pacing the room, but Mr.
Nollekens shook him by the elbow, and applied to
him for a little sweet- oil, a large basin, some water,
and pen, ink, and paper.

The gentleman, astonished at his want of
decency, referred him to the servant ; and Nolle-
kens, after he had taken the mask, muttered the
following soliloquy : ' Now, let me see, I must
begin to measure him ; where's my callipers ? I
must take him from his chin to the upper pinnacle
of his head ; I'll put him down in ink ; ay, that will
do ; now, I must have him from his nose to the
back part of his skull ; well, now let's take his
shoulders ; now for his neck ; well, now I've got
him all.'

On Mr. Nollekens' return from Putney Common,
after taking Mr. Pitt's mask, he observed to Mr.
Gahagan, pointing to it on the opposite seat of the
coach : c There, I would not take fifty guineas for
that mask, I can tell ye.' He would have done
wrong if he had ; for from this mask and Hoppner's
picture, which was lent him by Lord Mulgrave, he
was enabled to produce the statue erected in the
Senate-house of Cambridge, for which he received

MONUMENT OF PITT 381

three thousand guineas. Mr. Gahagan carved this
statue of Pitt, for which Mr. Nollekens paid him,
I am sorry to say, a miserably small sum ; and I
really think, those who now bask in the sunshine
of Mr. Nollekens' immense wealth should take into
consideration the letter which he addressed to the
executors shortly after the death of his old master.
Mr. George Lupton, the statuary, of Keppel
Row, New Road, informed me that he went to
Cambridge with his men to put up Mr. Pitt's monu-
ment ; and when he had erected the pedestal upon
which it was to stand, he wrote to Mr. Nollekens
and informed him of its being ready ; but as he
did not come immediately, Mr. Lupton placed the
figure upon it. Soon after this Mr. Nollekens
arrived, and exclaimed : 4 Thank God ! it is up.'
He went to Cambridge in a verv shabbv coat, not-

O 1/1/

withstanding he intended to accept the invitation of
the heads of the University, and to feed upon what
Lupton called ' the fat of the land ' ; the Rev.
Thomas Kerrick being one of his feeders. It is
said that Nollekens charged 1,000 for Pitt's
pedestal ; but Lupton assured me that he had only
12 for the working expenses, and that Nollekens
bought the stone remarkably cheap at Mr. Deval's
sale, he thinks at about nine shillings the cube foot.
He also farther observed that Chantrey was nothing
to Nollekens, with respect to his charges.

The erection of this effigy was thus noticed by
Prince Hoare, Esq., in his Academic Annals of
1809 : ' Statue of the Right Hon. William Pitt, to
be placed in the Senate-house in the University of

382 NOLLEKENS AND HIS TIMES

Cambridge, by general subscription of the Mem-
bers of the University. (Executed by Joseph
Nollekens, R.A.) This great statesman and orator
is represented in the act of speaking, holding a roll
of paper in his left hand. The attitude is designed
to convey an idea of that commanding energy and
decision with which he was accustomed to address
the House of Commons. He is habited in the
gown worn by the Masters of Arts in the University.
The statue is to be erected in the Senate-house, at
the eastern end of the room, in the place where the
figure of Glory at present stands.'

' The Guide through the University of Cam-
bridge,' published in 1814, after describing the
statue of the Duke of Somerset by Eysbrack,
states, c that on the right is a statue of the Right
Hon. W. Pitt, erected at the expense of different
Members of the University, upwards of 7,000
being subscribed for that purpose. This statue
was executed by Nollekens, and is considered by
many good judges to be his chef-d'oeuvre.'

Mr. Knight, one of the principal superintendents
of the works at the New London Bridge, informed
me that when Mrs. Siddons arrived to look at this
statue, Mr. Nollekens was touching up the drapery,
and that he heard that lady remark to the sculptor
that, in her opinion, he was frittering the folds.
Nollekens at first replied only by a kind of double
grunt ; but when that lady left the studio he
declared that he was glad she was gone, for she
knew nothing about the matter. Now, in the
opinion of several artists of eminence, Mrs. Siddons,

MONUMENTS 383

who has very fine taste, and a considerable share of
talent as a modeller, was perfectly correct. Many
of my readers may remember the head of Adam,
which Mrs. Siddons exhibited at the Koyal Academy
some years back j 1 but very few can recollect that
performance with more pleasure than myself.

When Mr. Nollekens had finished the monument
of the three Captains, ordered by Government to
be erected in Westminster Abbey, it remained in
his studio for nearly fourteen years, waiting for
the inscription ; and he being at last out of all
patience, petitioned the late King, then at Wey-
mouth, to take it into his roval consideration. The
late Mr. Pitt was so highly displeased at his inter-
ference that he never would sit to Mr. Nollekens
for his bust, nor recommend him in any way what-
ever ; and yet it is a fact that, after the decease of
that great statesman, Mr. Nollekens made no less
a sum by him than 15,000, according to the follow-
ing calculation. The statue and pedestal for Trinity
College, Cambridge, 4,000.

He also executed at least seventy-four busts in
marble, for almost every one of which he had one
hundred and twenty guineas ; and there were
upwards of six hundred casts taken at six guineas
each. The marble for the figure did not ultimately
cost him more than 20 ; for he had so cunningly
economized the block that he cut from the corners
several pieces for various busts : and even farther
than this, the block not being long enough by the
depth of Mr. Pitt's head, he contrived to drill out

1 In the year 1802. Ed.

384 NOLLEKENS AND HIS TIMES

a lump from between the legs large enough for the
head, which he put on the shoulders of the block.
The arm was also carved from a single piece ; and
yet for this figure, pieced in a manner which the
sculptors of Italy would have been ashamed of , he
received the unheard-of price of three thousand
guineas, and one thousand for the pedestal ; giving
the sculptor who carved it only the odd 300 for
his trouble. For the busts in marble he paid
Gahagan, Goblet, and another sculptor of inferior
merit, 24 each upon the average.

When the late Marquis of Londonderry was
sitting for his bust, coals were at an enormous
price ; and the noble lord, who had been for some
time shivering in his seat, took the opportunity,
when the sculptor went out for more clay, of
throwing some coals upon the fire. ' Oh, my good
lord ! I don't know what Mr. Nollekens will say V
exclaimed Mrs. Nollekens, who was bolstered up
and bound to an old night-chair by the fireside.
4 Never mind, my good lady,' answered his lord-
ship ; ' tell him to put them into my bill.'
Lonsdale, 1 the portrait-painter, who found him one
severe winter's evening starving himself before a
handful of fire, requested to be permitted to throw
a few coals on ; and before Mr. Nollekens could
reply, on they were.

Lonsdale, strongly suspecting that they would be
taken off as soon as he was gone, was determined
to be convinced ; and when he had reached the

1 James Lonsdale (1777-1839). He took Opie's house, and suc-
ceeded to part of his practice. Ed.

BUST OF COUTTS 385

street-door, pretended to have forgotten something,
reascended to the room, and found him, as he
suspected, taking them off with the fire-feeder, so
strongly recommended to him by the Bishop of
St. Asaph, at the same time muttering to himself:
c Shameful ! shameful extravagance !' He never
left the kind-hearted Lonsdale a legacy ; at least, I
know of none, though it was his intention to have
put him down in a former will for 1,000.

John Knowles, Esq., the friend, and for many
years the constant companion, of Fuseli, com-
municated to me the remarks which that artist
made to him respecting the talents of Nollekens.

' Mr. Coutts said to me yesterday,' observed
Fuseli, ' " My family have urged me to sit for a bust
to be executed in marble. Now, as you know,
Fuseli, that the price is not an object, pray tell me
who you think will execute it best ?" I had no
difficulty in doing this, for, though Nollekens is
superannuated in many particulars, yet in a bust
he stands unrivalled. If Mr. Coutts had required
a group of figures, I should have recommended
Flaxman, but for a bust, give me Nollekens.'

This bust of the late Mr. Coutts, the banker, was
one of Nollekens' last productions, and one in
which he appeared to take much pleasure, but I
must say that, as to likeness, it is certainly
ridiculously severe. In my mind, it displays the
distorted features of a distressed person labouring
under the heavy pangs of poverty, penury, or
peevishness, neither of which cheerless character-
istics did Mr. Coutts at any period of his life

25

386 NOLLEKENS AND HIS TIMES

possess. Indeed, it is what I deem a Cruikshank-
caricature countenance. Chantrey has succeeded
much better, and, indeed, completely, in his statue
of him. This statue is placed in the Duchess of
St. Alban's drawing-room, in her Grace's town-
house, Piccadilly. Mrs. Nollekens assured me that
during the numerous sittings which that wealthy
man gave Mr. Nollekens, no one could be more
attentive to him than Mrs. Coutts, who never failed
to bring with her in her carriage some of the most
delicious and comforting soups or refreshments
that could possibly be made, which she herself
warmed in a saucepan over the parlour fire : ' and
I declare, my good sir,' continued Mrs. Nollekens,
' I believe it did me as much good to see old Mr.
Coutts enjoy every spoonful of it as it would have
done had it passed through my own mouth.'

These savoury-soup scenes must have been
comically curious, as well as truly melancholy ; for
at that time Mrs. Nollekens was in her last stage
of existence, with her spine nearly bent double.
A wry neck had much twisted her head, which, in
the best possible position, reclined upon a wing of
a nurse's old-fashioned high-backed night-chair,
covered with a broad chequered red and white
stuff; and her swollen legs, which were almost
useless, were placed upon a stool for the day by
her ' flesh-brush rubber,' a woman who regularly
attended her for an hour every morning. In the
latter part of Mrs. Nollekens' life her husband
would frequently make drawings of her, either in
her chair, or as her maid was leading her up or

COUTTS 387

down stairs ; these sketches he showed to Mr.
Jackson, observing to him, even in her presence,
4 Only see how much she has altered in a short
time ! That drawing I made in July, and this in
August.' ' Ay, sir,' observed Mrs. Nollekens, who
was almost bent double in the great arm-chair,
' you never would make a drawing of me when I
was fit to be seen.' Mr. Coutts was blowing his
broth, attended by Mrs. Coutts, a lively woman,
most fashionably dressed : whilst Nollekens, to use
the commonest of all similes, nearly as deaf as
a post, was prosecuting his bust, and at the same
time repeating his loud interrogations as to the
price of stocks to his sitter, who had twice most
good-temperedly stayed the spoon when it was con-
siderably more than half-way to his mouth, and
turned his head to answer him. As for the old
conversation upon his early amusement of bell-
tolling, that was a pleasure our artist had given up
ever since he became a patient of the celebrated
aurist, Mr. Maule, who advised him by all means
to keep his ears well stuffed with cotton.

Mr. Henning, 1 the sculptor, when employed by
Lady Moira to make a model in wax from Lord
Moira's bust by Nollekens, was under the necessity
of ^oino; to the artist's house to take the likeness,
and he was in hope, from a man standing so high
in his profession, that he should derive considerable
benefit from his conversation ; but in this expecta-
tion he was, after repeatedly trying to bring him
into discourse, most grievously disappointed. Mr.

1 John Henning (1771-1851). Ed.

388 NOLLEKENS AND HIS TIMES

Henning had been previously introduced to Mr.
Nollekens by his old friend, James Dawkins, Esq.,
who would now and then joke him as to his
Venuses. Mr. Henning informed me, that Mr.
Dawkins assured him that his uncle's work of
Palmyra and Balbeck had cost him no less a sum
than 50,000, his attendants in the deserts being so
numerous that he seldom had fewer than three
hundred men to protect him and assist in his dis-
coveries. Surely this noble enterprise demands
the most liberal notice of the future biographer of
Mr. Dawkins.

Fiamingo's models of boys were great favourites
with Mr. Nollekens : he had several originals in
clay, which he procured from Antwerp, and upon
which he placed so high a value that, though
frequent and considerable offers were made, he
would not part with them. Indeed, he would not
even listen to his nattering friend Angelica Kauff-
mann, who practised her wheedlings to the fullest
extent of her fascinating powers to become mistress
of only one of the most inferior of his collection.

He laid out little money in England for plaster
casts, for most of those he possessed he brought
from Rome, unless Papera, who in the commence-
ment of his career carried the new things round
to the artists in baskets, brought him a Fiamingo
child which he had never seen. I recollect a basso-
relievo of boys which he admired very much until
Papera named John Deare as the modeller, when
his admiration, I am sorry to say, decreased into
the following remarks : ' Yes, it is ; he is a clever

WIGS IN SCULPTURE 389

fellow, certainly, but I don't see the wonderful
merit in his Marine Venus that Sir Eichard
Worsley talks so much about ; and there's Mr.
Penn, with his Landing of Julius Caesar, it's a
clever thing, and so I have always told him.'

Nollekens, whenever he could contrive it, avoided
a representation of flowing hair in marble, particu-
larly in curled wigs, though in his bust of Lord
Chancellor Bathurst he was obliged to attend
strictly to costume. The manner in which the wig
of that bust is modelled proves what I firmly
believe to be the fact, that such profusion of hair
either perplexed him or was too expensive in the
workmanship. Indeed, his master, Scheemakers,
never shone in the art of wig-making, as his bust
of Sir Hans Sloane in the British Museum suffici-
ently proves. His predecessor, Bird, in the wig of
Sir Cloudesley Shovel in Westminster Abbey, bad
as it is, was more successful in its tooling. That
of Dr. Lockyer, in Saint Mary Overies, and those
on the statues of Sir John Cutler, in the College
of Physicians and Grocers' Hall, are very little
superior.

Koubiliac's statue of Sir John Cass, at Saint
Botolph's, Aldgate, exhibits a particularly tasteful
wig j 1 but, notwithstanding his skill displayed in
that instance, he was not fond of introducing it,
and endeavoured to persuade his sitters to take
their wigs off. His busts of Pope, Lord Boling-

1 This fine statue has lately been most villainously painted of
various colours, in order to make it appear as natural as life, or like
the Westminster Abbey waxwork. Smith.

39o NOLLEKENS AND HIS TIMES

broke, Martin Folkes, Doctors Mead and Frewin,
and numerous others of men of literature, are
without wigs. Jonathan Richardson has etched
his own portrait and that of Lord Somers in flow-
ing wigs, and these two prints exhibit more flow of
curl and spirit of needle than any I can instance.
Indeed, they are complete specimens of tasteful
flowing hair, and yet Richardson has also etched
his own head, and many more of Lord Bolingbroke
and Pope, without wigs, which proves that he pre-
ferred the natural shape of the head.

Nollekens' bust of Dr. Johnson is without his
wig, but with very thick and heavy locks, which
much displeased the doctor, who insisted upon it
that all persons should be portrayed as they are
seen in company ; adding, that though a man for
ease may wear a night-cap in his own chamber, he
ought not to look like one who had taken physic.
I recollect that Wilkie, the Academician, once
observed to an artist who was about to paint his
own portrait without his cravat, with his shirt-
collar thrown open to exhibit his neck, c Oh, don't
do that ; you'll look as if you were going to be
shaved.'

In the representation of hair, the spirited painter
has a decided superiority over the most exquisite
and dexterous sculptor ; not only in colour and
texture, but also as to time. The former is
enabled to produce in one hour with his elastic and
oily pencil as much as would take the latter six
weeks with his chisel and drill ; as may be seen in
the beautifully flowing hair of Vandyke, Dobson,

WIGS 391

Lely, and Kneller, and the laboured works of the
best sculptors. The difference in a Lely wig from
that of a Kneller, is that the former generally falls
down the shoulders in front, and the latter is
thrown over the shoulders behind.

It must, however, be understood, that though
Kneller and Lely thus differed, they did not paint
all their sitters according to their own fashion of
wearing their wigs. On the contrary, we find by
Blooteling's print of Thomas, Earl of Danby, that
his wig was peculiar. At the bottom of the sides
of the wig, which falls over the front of the
shoulders, there are three regularly distinct curls
stiffly rolled up. But of all the wig-dandies of
those days, the Duke of Ormond appears to have
been the most fanciful ; and I am supported in
this conjecture by the four different portraits of
that nobleman, engraven by Faithorne, Loggan,
Williams, and White ; which, though they all
have large and flowing wigs, conspicuously vary in
their modes of curling.

It may possibly be within the recollection of
some few of my readers, when gentlemen indulged
in an immensely expensive purchase of deep and
flowing curled wigs, such as Wycherley and ' Beau
Fielding ' wore ; and I have been credibly in-
formed, that the enormous sum of fifty guineas
was given by the best-dressing men of the time
for a truly fashionable wig of the above descrip-
tion. Such wigs continued to be worn by many
men of the old school during the latter part of
the profession of Zincke, the enamel-painter, whose

392 NOLLEKENS AND HIS TIMES

portraits exhibit many of them. Sir James Thorn-
hill and Jonathan Richardson wore flowing wigs,
and so likewise did Sir James' son-in-law, Hogarth,
in the early part of his professional career. In the
latter years of his life, he wore a Busby wig when
dressed ; though, whilst painting, he preferred a
velvet cap. There are persons now living who
recollect seeing the father of the late Mr. Prime,
of Witton, 1 wearing a flowing wig, or what is
better known in the burletta of c Tom Thumb ' as a
Doodle and a Noodle.

Mrs. Nollekens has frequently been heard to
relate, that during the early part of Mr. Welch's
magistracy, gentlemen were continually annoyed,
and frequently robbed of their wigs in the open
street and in mid-day. She stated that this method
of wig- stealing was singularly daring, as well as
laughably curious. A man dressed like a baker,
bending beneath a large, loaded bread-basket,
which he had hoisted upon his shoulders, waited
until the first gentleman wearing a costly wig was
about to turn the corner of a street in a crowded
thoroughfare ; and then, just as an accomplice ran
forcibly against him, a boy concealed in the baker's
basket knocked off the gentleman's gold-laced hat,
and instantly snatched his wig. Whilst the gentle-
man was stooping to pick up his hat, the fictitious
baker made off, with his dexterous assistant, till
he came to the first convenient turning, where he

1 This gentleman resided in the house which had been the mansion
of Sir Godfrey Kneller, the staircase of which, painted by that artist,
remains perfectly in its original state. Smith.

BUSTS OF FOX 393

released the boy, who walked away with his booty
neatly folded up in a school- boy's satchel, which
he threw carelessly over his shoulder, as if slowly
going to school, with his round, c shining morning
face ;' leaving the baker with a loaf or two in his
basket, pretending to be waiting at a customer's
door, at which it was supposed he had knocked.

After numerous depredations of this kind, the
bakers' men, who were avoided by the Wycher-
leys, 1 were determined not to be mistaken, and
no longer carried their baskets hoisted on their
shoulders, but swung them over the arm, and have
ever since carried them at their backs ; so that the
wearers of wigs might see the contents of their
bread-baskets.

But to return to our sculptor. In my opinion,
Mr. Nollekens trusted more to the eyes, nose, and
mouth for a likeness, than to the bones of the
head ; and in this belief I am supported most
powerfully by the mask taken from Mr. Fox after
his death. Mr. Nollekens modelled and carved
two different busts of Mr. Fox. The first was
with a toupet and curls above the ears, as that

1 From Smith's portrait of Wycherley, engraven in 1703, we may
conclude that he was, as reported, a very handsome man, and, by the
sleekness of the curls of his wig, that he took great pains with it ;
indeed, so much was it the fashion to attend to the easy grace of the
curls, that it was his custom, while standing in the pit of the theatre
conversing with ladies in the boxes, to comb and adjust his discom-
posed locks. Wig-combs, which were made of most beautiful speci-
mens of tortoiseshell, and most fancifully engraven with representations
of flowers and birds, and, indeed, sometimes inlaid with mother-of-
pearl with their owners' names, were contained in a side-pocket case
of the size of a thin octavo volume, for the purpose of having them
always about their persons. Smith.

394 NOLLEKENS AND HIS TIMES

gentleman wore his hair about 1783, just as Sir
Joshua Reynolds has painted him ; of which bust
there are several engravings, the carving being by
T. Gaugain. 1 The second bust is with his hair cut
close ; and of this there are two plates : one by
Skelton, for the small edition of Fox's c Life of
King James the Second,' and the other by Evans,
from a beautiful drawing by Mr. Howard, for the
large edition of the same work. Of the mask
taken by Nollekens after death, I am not aware of
there being any engraving ; ghastly as it is, and
totally unlike as the features are to those of Mr.
Fox when living, still the shape of the forehead is
truly remarkable and interesting. In his busts of
that statesman, the foreheads are low and rugged ;
whilst that of the mask is even, high, and pro-
minent, full of dignified grandeur, and more so,
perhaps, with the exception of Lord Bacon, than
that of any other statesman of equal celebrity.
The reader may be convinced of the correctness of
this remark by visiting Mr. Deville's Gallery in
the Strand, where there are casts taken from both
examples.

1 Thomas Gaugain (1748-1802 ?) was a French engraver, settled in
London. Ed.

[ 395 ]

CHAPTER XVII.

Sale of Mr. Nollekens' collection of sculpture Mending antiques
Sale of his prints, etc. Account of his seated female figure
Patrons of modern English sculptors Antique foot Sir Joshua
Reynolds' throne-chair List of busts, monuments, and statues
executed by Nollekens Chronological list of all his sculptures
exhibited at the Royal Academy, from 1771 to 1816 Conclusion.

The sale of Mr. Nollekens' unsold works, and
collection of antique and modern sculptures, took
place under the hammer of Mr. Christie, on the
premises in Mortimer Street, on Thursday, July 3,
1823, and at the auctioneer's rooms in Pall Mall,
on the two days following. The collection con-
sisted of many of Mr. Nollekens' original models,
carvings in marble, and works by Italian and other
artists, particularly Michael Angelo and Fiamingo.
Mr. Nollekens' statue of a standing Venus in
marble, pouring ambrosia on her hair, was pur-
chased by Mrs. Palmer for 231 ; a and his model
of a sitting Venus was bought by the Earl of
Egremont. The antique marbles consisted of a
statue of Minerva, a noble bust of Commodus,

1 This figure is by no means so good as the one of Venus chiding
Cupid, executed by the same artist for his liberal patron Lord Yar-
borough. Smith.

396 NOLLEKENS AND HIS TIMES

in perfect condition, and several other Imperial
busts ; one of Mercury, and a very spirited head of
a faun, chiefly purchased at the sales of the late
B. Bond Hopkins, Esq., at Pain's Hill, and at the
Earl of Be[s]sborough's, at Boehampton. These
antiques, which were mostly purchased by the
Duke of Newcastle, brought full thirtv times the
money they had cost Mr. Nollekens. His method
of mending antiques was rather curious : he would
mix the dust of the sort of stone he was mending
with his plaster ; so that when dry, if the antiques
were of Pentallic marble, the sparkling of the
stone-dust in a great measure disguised the joining
or mended parts. Mr. Boubiliac, when he had
to mend a broken antique, would mix grated
Gloucester cheese with his plaster, adding the
grounds of porter and the yolk of an egg ; which
mixture, when dry, forms a very hard cement.

Mr. Nollekens' prints, drawings, and books of
prints, were sold by M. Evans, in Pall Mall, on
Thursday, December 4, 1823. They principally
consisted of nearly the entire works of Nicolas
Poussin ; a fine collection of the engravings after
Sir Joshua Reynolds' pictures ; several sketch-
books filled by Mr. Nollekens when at Borne, and
numerous drawings also by him, made upon the
backs of letters.

Nollekens' figure with the sandal, carved for
Lord Yarborough, was considerably the greatest
favourite with the public of all his female figures ;
but that which he himself took the greatest delight
in showing, was seated with her arms round her

STATUES 397

legs, Lot 21, purchased at his sale at Mr. Christie's,
by the Earl of Egremont, for the sum of 84 ; his
lordship giving it the preference to other works
by the same artist. He engaged Mr. Kossi, the
Academician, to execute it in marble, with strict
injunctions that no alterations whatever, not even an
improvement upon the model, should be attempted.
In giving this order, his lordship was, in my humble
opinion, perfectly correct ; for, if improvements had
been made, it could no longer have been esteemed
as a production of Nollekens' mind ; though I am
perfectly convinced, that had the figure been carved
under his own eye, it would in many instances have
been benefited by those corrections which most
sculptors are induced to make whilst they are
executing finished carvings from their models.

Mr. Williams, 1 who carved this figure under the
superintendence of Mr. Rossi, assured me that in
no instance could he have been engaged upon a
more difficult task, especially in carving parts that
were so intricately undercut ; as the right hand of
the figure placed before the right leg, was within a
quarter of an inch of the shin-bone, and he had to
invent tools of the most singular shapes to enable
him to cut and file away the stone. It was the
opinion of most artists, that many parts of this
figure could have been much improved : they
thought the ankles unquestionably too thick ; and
that, to have given it an air. of the antique, the
right thigh wanted flesh to fill up the ill-formed

1 Probably John Thomas Williams, a gem engraver, who undertook
some sculpture of a secondary character. Ed.

398 NOLLEKENS AND HIS TIMES

nature which Nollekens had strictly copied. The
abdomen was far from good ; and the face was too
old, and of a common character ; but the back was
considered extremely beautiful. The attitude was
a natural one, and acquired by mere chance, as
good attitudes often are.

The woman from whom it was modelled, after
standing for some time to Mr. Nollekens for parts
of a figure on which he was then engaged, was
desired to dress ; and, upon her seating herself on
the ground, to put on her stockings, her posture so
pleased the sculptor, that he immediately cried,
' Stop ! don't move ; I must model you as you now
sit !' and it is a curious fact, that he, being at that
time Visitor of the Eoyal Academy, placed the
woman who sat as the model there precisely in
the same position. It is also rather singular, that
the above-mentioned Mr. Williams, who carved the
figure for Mr. Rossi, is in possession of a drawing
made by his father at the Academy, from the
female who was so placed.

When Mr. Nollekens had completed this model,
the late Earl of Carlisle purchased it, with an
intention of having it carved in marble, and placed
with the numerous other works of art at Castle
Howard ; but upon some family objections being
made, his lordship gave the artist a portion of the
purchase-money to resign his bargain, and it
actually remained unsold for many years previous
to the death of our sculptor. It is now, however,
honoured with a pedestal at Petworth, amidst
numerous specimens of modern Art, of which

PATRONAGE OF SCULPTURE 399

Lord Egremont, to his eternal honour be it spoken,
is a most liberal encourager. This nobleman is
not only in possession of Mr. Kossi's beautiful
group of Celadon and Amelia, but, I am happy to
state, has also commissioned the same artist to
execute another figure for him. His lordship will
likewise have the good fortune to possess the group
of the Angel Michael and Satan, one of the
grandest works of the late Professor Flaxman, and
perhaps equal to the productions of this, or any
age of former times. The modern sculptors, how-
ever, are not only indebted to the patronage of the
above nobleman, but also to that of their Graces
the Dukes of Devonshire, Bedford and Newcastle,
who are in possession of some of the finest speci-
mens of their abilities. Indeed, our sculptors of
talent have so glorious a patron in his most
gracious Majesty, 1 that the greatest part of the
nobility and persons of opulence endeavour to vie
with each other in the decoration of their halls and
galleries ; and in a few years, it may reasonably be
expected, the mansions of wealthy Englishmen will
exhibit such a display of native talent, that it will
at once astonish and confound most of our Conti-
nental visitors and rivals.

Sir Thomas Lawrence is the fortunate possessor
of an antique foot, valued by Nollekens as highly as
any specimen in his collection ; of which precious
relic he has been heard to tell the following story.
When he was at Home, he often endeavoured to
persuade Cardinal Albani, to whom it belonged, to

1 George III. Ed.

400 NOLLEKENS AND HIS TIMES

part with it, but without success. At last, when
Nollekens was about to come to England, the
Cardinal, who knew no other way of getting
possession of a female torso, which Nollekens
possessed, gave him the foot for it.

It has also been stated that the Cardinal stole the
foot in order to give it to Nollekens ; and some,
who stick at nothing, have said that Nollekens stole
it from the Cardinal. This, however, I do not
believe, as I never will encourage the thought of
his being dishonest, or even in the slightest degree
dishonourable. It is now kept by Sir Thomas
Lawrence, under a glass shade ; and it must have
measured one foot five inches and a quarter from
the heel to the great toe, before the tip of that
member was mutilated. Sir Thomas Lawrence,
when first he acquired it, was inclined to consider
it as belonging to the famous torso, the marble
being the same, and the proportions agreeing most
perfectly ; but, upon a little reflection, the president
gave up that pleasing idea, perfectly satisfied that
it never could have belonged to that fragment, as
the foot treads flat upon the ground, and is un-
questionably in the action of a standing figure
about to walk, which does not accord with the
action of the thighs of the torso, which, the reader
will recollect, is seated.

I was the means of Sir Thomas acquiring another
interesting relique of art, as will appear by the
following statement.

Twelve months after the death of Dr. Fryer I
found, by a catalogue of his household property,

THE THRONE-CHAIR OF REYNOLDS aoi

that Sir Joshua Reynolds' throne-chair was inserted
for sale by auction ; and though I had many friends
who were ignorant of that circumstance, and whose
love for the arts would have induced them to have
gone to a high price for it, particularly one gentle-
man of rank and fortune, from whom I and my
family have received repeated instances of kind-
ness, I considered it my duty, as an artist, to
apprise Sir Thomas Lawrence of its approaching
exposition ; and, for that proper attention, I had
the honour of receiving his warmest thanks. How-
ever, on the day of sale, the president had nearly
lost it, as the lot was actually about to be knocked
down for the paltry sum of 10s. 6d. just as the
rescuing bidder entered the room ; which enabled
him, after a slight contest of biddings, to place the
treasure on that very day by Sir Thomas's fireside
in Russell Square.

Last year, 1 in the ever- memorable sale of the
Leicester Gallery of Pictures, consisting entirely of
the productions of British artists, a comparatively
diminutive chair of French character was con-
spicuously advertised as the throne -chair of Sir
Joshua Reynolds. Sir Thomas Lawrence, as soon
as possible, personally acquainted Mr. Christie with
the absurd mistake, who, upon coming to the lot,
with his usual manly fairness, acknowledged the
error to the whole company, informing them that
the real unostentatious chair was in the possession
of the President of the Royal Academy.

Some time before Dr. Fryer's death I requested

1 That is, in 1827. Ed.

26

402 NOLLE KENS AND HLS TIMES

him to give me a specimen of Barry's handwriting
to insert in Boswell's ' Life of Dr. Johnson,' which
my wife has for several years been engaged in
illustrating ; when he most liberally gave me that
artist's first sketch of the letter which he addressed
to Lord and Lady Inchiquin upon their honouring
him with the presentation of the above-mentioned
chair. And as many of my readers may not be in
possession of Dr. Fryer's ' Life of Barry,' where
the perfect letter is inserted, I here give a copy of
the first confused draught which now adorns my
wife's book :

' Mr. Barry presents his respectful compliments to Lord and Lady
Inchiquin, with every acknowledgment and thanks for their in-
estimable favour conferred on him this morning, in the gift of Sir
Joshua's chair.

' Alas ! this chair, that has had such a glorious career of fortune,
instrumental as it has been in giving the most advantageous stability
to the otherwise fleeting, perishable graces of a Lady Sarah Bunbury,
or a Waldegrave, or in perpetuating the negligent, honest exterior of
the authors of the " Rambler," the " Traveller," and of almost every-
one whom the public admiration gave a currency for abilities, beauty,
rank, or fashion : the very chair that is immortalized in Mrs. Siddons'
tragic muse, where it will have as much celebrity as the chair of
Pindar, which for so many ages was shown in the Porch at Olympia.

'This chair, then, of Sir Joshua Reynolds may rest, very well
satisfied with the reputation it has gained ; and although its present
possessor may not be enabled to grace it with any new ornament, yet
it can surely count upon finding a most affectionate, reverential con-
servator, whilst God shall permit it to remain under his care. 5
'Jan. 30, 1794.
1 No. 36, Castle-street, Oxford-market.'

The next record which I shall insert concerning
Mr. Nollekens is a list of his principal perform-
ances, which I have arranged alphabetically, in
order that the reader may readily find the bust,
statue, or monument of any particular individual :

BUSTS

403

BUSTS.

A.
Aberdeen, Lord
Ackland, Miss
Adam, Mr.

Alban's, Duchess of St.
Andover, Lady
^Anson, 1 Hon. Thomas
Argyle, Duchess of
Arkwright, Mr.
Arkwright, Mrs.
Asaph, Bishop of
Aubyn, Sir John St.
Aubyn, Lady St.
Auckland, Miss
Aufrere, Mr.
Aylesford, Lady

Baillie, Doctor

Banks, Sir Joseph

Bathurst, 2 Lord Chancellor

Beaufort, Duchess of
^Bedford, Duke of

Bedford, John Duke of

Bedford, Duchess of

Barrington, Lord

Berwick, Lady
*Besborough, Lord

Bolton, Duke of

Borrows, Master
*Bradell, Mrs.

Brook, Lord

Brownlow, Lord

Brownlow, Lady

Brownlow, Lady
*Burney, Admiral
*Burney, M. D.
*Burney, Rev. Doctor

C.
^Canning, Hon. George

Carlisle, Lord

Carr, Mr. John

Castlereagh, Lord

Cavendish, Lord Frederic
^Cavendish, Lord George

Chambers, Doctor

Charles II., King of Eng-
land

Chatham, Lord
*Charlemont, Lord

Charlemont, 3 Lady

Clair, Miss Le

Coke, Mr.

Colpoys, Admiral

Coote, Sir Eyre

1 Mr. Deville, of the Strand, having purchased of Mr. Goblet, Mr.
Nollekens' principal assistant, the moulds of those busts marked with
a (*), the reader will be gratified by knowing that casts of them may
now be had at a very reasonable rate. Smith.

2 This bust is in the Registrar's room of the Six Clerks' Office,
Chancery Lane. In the committee- room, under the same roof, is a
whole-length portrait of the same Chancellor in his robes, by Dance,
which has been severely cut at the lower part of the picture. Smith.

3 I have heard Northcote declare that, in his opinion, the bust of
Lady Charlemont is the finest of Nollekens' productions, and, indeed,
that he considered it equal to any antique. Smith.

404

NOLLEKENS AND HIS TIMES

Cornelli, Mrs.
Coutts, Mr.
*Cowper, Lord
Cromwell, Oliver
Cumberland, His R. H.
William Duke of

D.

Darnley, Lord
*Daruley, Lady
Dashwood, Mr. Bateman
Denison, Mr.
Devonshire, Duke of
Dillon, Lord
Donegal, Marquis
Dorset, Duke of
Drummond, Provost 1
Dunning, Mr.
Dysart, Lady

E.
Ellis, Mrs.
*Erskine, Lord

Farr, Hon. Edward
Finch, Mr. Thomas
*Fitzpatrick, General
Fitzwilliam, Lord
Foley, Mr.
Folkes, Lady

Fox, Hon. Charles James 2
Fraine, Mr.
Fraser, Simon

G.
*George III., King of Eng-
land
^Gainsborough, Lord

Garrick, Mr. David

Gower, Lord

Gower, Lord G. L.
*Gower, Lady

Gordon, Duke of 3

Goldsmith, Oliver

Grafton, Duke of

1 George Drummond, so often Provost of Edinburgh, ranks very
high among the benefactors to the Royal Infirmary in that city. In
memory of its obligations, a bust of him has been placed in the hall.
It was done by Nollekens, and bears the highly complimentary in-
scription of 'George Drummond, to whom his country is indebted
for all the benefits which it derives from the Royal Infirmary '
('History of Edinburgh).' Smith.

2 It is said that the Empress Catherine of Russia placed Fox's bust
by Nollekens between those of Cicero and Demosthenes. She had
no fewer than twelve busts of Mr. Fox in marble, all executed by
Nollekens, to give as presents. Smith.

' To the memory of Charles James Fox,' written by Mr. Roscoe,
under a bust of him by Nollekens, in a temple erected to his memory
upon the banks of the Clyde by Mr. Todd, of Glasgow.

' Champion of Freedom ! whose exalted mind
Grasp'd at the general good of human kind !
Patriot ! whose view could stretch from pole to pole,
And, whilst he bless'd his country, loved the whole !' Smith.

3 This bust of the Duke of Gordon is considered one of Nollekens'
finest works. Smith.

BUSTS

405

*Granby, Marquis

Levi, Moses

*Grenville, Lord

Lee, Mr.

*Greville, Hon. Thomas

"^Liverpool, Lord

Grey, Lord

Liverpool, Lady

Gregory, Mr.

Lucan, the Daughter of

*Gwydir, Lord

Lord

H.

M.

Hamilton, Mr.

Madox, Mr.

Harringdon, Mr.

Malone, Anthony

Hawkesbury, Lady

*Mansfield, Lord

Heartley, Lady Louisa

Mansolini, Anna, at Bo-

^Helen's, Lord St.

logna

Hillesbury, Lord

Manners, Lady

Holford, Mr. Robert

Mathias, Mr.

^Holland, Lord

Marchant, Master

Howard, the Hon. Mrs.;

Maud, Mr.

Howard, Mrs.

Maud, Mrs.

J.

Meath, Bishop

*Milton, Lord

Johnson, Bishop

Mitford, Master

*Johnson, Doctor 1

Moira, Lord

Jersey, Lord

Monck, Lady Elizabeth

K.

Montagu, Mr.

*Mulgrave, Lord

Keate, George

Keith, Lord

N.

Key, Rev. Mr.

Neal, General

Keebel, Mr.

Newcastle, Duke of

King, Admiral

Newborough, Lord

Kirby, Mrs.

Newborough, Lady

L.

North, Hon. Dudley

Lake, Lord

0.

Lauderdale, Lord

Orme, Robert

1 At Nollekens 5 sale, Mr. Chantrey requested me to bid for the
first cast of this head of Dr. Johnson. Upon my asking him how far
he would go for it, he observed, ' You buy it, for I shall think it cheap
at any price ; as it is, in my opinion, by far the finest head our friend
ever produced ' ; and, indeed, it seemed to be considered so by another
bidder, who made me pay ten guineas for it almost four times the
money Nollekens charged for the common casts. Smith.

406

NOLLEKENS AND HIS TIMES

P.

Paoli, General

Parr, Count

Peranesi, J. B.

Pelham, Hon. Mr.

Pelham, Hon. Mrs.
*Perceval, Hon. Spencer 1

Percy, Lord

Petre, Lord
*Pitt, Hon. William 2

Popham, Mr.

Pringle, Sir John

R.

Richards, Mr.
Richards, Mr. John
Roberts, Doctor
Robinson, Sir William
Robinson, Sir Sept.
Rockingham, Marquis of
Ross, Lord
Rutland, Duke of
Rutland, Duchess of
Rutland, Duchess of, Isa-
bella
Russia, Empress of

S.
Salesbury, Lady
Saville, Sir George
Simmonds, Daughter of

Mr.
Somerset, Duke of

Spencer, Lord

Spencer, Lord Robert

Stanhope, Sir William

Stafford, Marquis of
*Sterne, Rev. Laurence

Stonor, Mr.

Stroonlof, General

Stuart, Lord Henry

Stuart, Sir John

Sykes, Sir Christopher
T.
*Taylor, Mr.

Townley, Mr. Charles

Townley, Mr. John

Trevor, Bishop

Tulmarsh, Mr.

W.

*Wales, His Royal High-
ness Prince of
*Wales, Her Royal High-
ness Princess of

Waddell, Mr. William
"^Warwick, Lord

Welch, Mr. Saunders

Welch, Mrs., wife to the
above

Wellesley, Marquis
*Wellesley, Hon. Pole
*Wellesley, Hon. William
* Wellington, Duke of

West, B. P. R. A.
*Whitbread, Samuel

1 In a letter by Nollekens, dated November 27, 1812, with which
I have lately been favoured by the Rev. Henry Crowe, of Bath, to
whom it is addressed, it is stated that his price for a bust in marble
was then one hundred and fifty guineas ; to which he adds that he
had at that time orders for fifteen busts of Mr. Perceval at that price.
Smith.

2 The busts of Pitt and Fox, according to the theatrical phrase,
were called ' Nollekens' stock pieces,' for they were always in requisi-
tion. Smith.

MONUMENTS

Woodburne, Colonel
*Wyndham, Hon. William

Woodhouse, Mr.

*Wynne, Sir W. W.
William III., King
England

of

407

Y.

*York, His Royal Highness

Duke of
York, Her Royal High-
ness Duchess of

MONUMENTS EXECUTED

A.
Ashburton, Lord

B.

Bathurst, Lord
Barwell, Henry
Bateman, Lord
Baring, John
Besborough, Lord
Boston, Lord
Boscawen, Mr.
Birch, Taylor
Bod well, Mr.
Booth, Sir Charles
Boyn, Lady
Boyde, Lady
Buck worth, Mr.

Coke, Mrs. 1
Champion, Major
Chase, Mr.
Cunliffe, Sir Foster

BY MR. NOLLEKENS.
D.

Darby, Mrs.
Dashwood, Sir John
Davenport
Dorset, Duke of
Dysart, Lord

E.
Earl, Mrs.
Elwes, Mr.

F.
Finch, Rev. Dr.
Fuller, John

G.

Goldsmith, Oliver

H.
Howard, Mrs. 2
Hill, Joseph

I.

Irwin, Lady
Irby, Mrs.

1 This monument cost about 2,000. The whole of the figures
were carved by Goblet. Smith.

2 It has been roundly asserted that Nollekens took the composition
of this monument from that erected to the Cardinal Richelieu. Be
this as it may, the figure of the child alone is equal to anything
ancient or modern, and the praise bestowed on that Nollekens is un-
equivocally entitled to. The figure of Religion in this monument was
carved by Goblet. Smith.

408

NOLLEKENS AND HIS TIMES

J.

R.

Jervoise, Mrs.

Robinson, Sir Sept.

K.

S.

Keate, George

Kent, H.E.H. Duke of

Salesbury, Sir Thomas
Sand, Lord

L.

Leigh, Lord
Long, Charles 1
Lovaine, Lord

M.

Mackenzie, Stewart

Standish, Mr.

Sayer, Admiral
Southell, Edward
Seymour, Lady Anne
Spencer, Earl
Shipley, Mrs. 2
Stuart, Sir Charles

Manners, Lord Robert
Mitford, Mrs.
Mordant, Sir J.
Mortman, Mr.
Mynell

T.
Talbot, Lady
Trevers, Lord
Tyrell, Sir J.

N.

W.

Noel, General

P.

Pinfold, Sir Thomas

Willis, Dr. Robert
Wyndham, William
Wyndham, Family
Worcester, Bishop

Pringle, Sir John

Wynn, Lady

1 This monument, consisting of a boy with an inverted torch, was
erected at Saxmundham : for a notice and drawing of which I have
been obliged to the Rev. John Mitford, editor of an edition of Gray's
Works, published in 1814. Smith.

2 The wife of the late Bishop of St. Asaph, who was a brother of
Shipley, the drawing-master of the Strand, where Nollekens went to
draw of an evening when a boy. Smith.

William Shipley was the founder of the famous St. Martin's Lane
Academy, the best drawing-school in the middle of the eighteenth
century. He was born in 1714, and survived until 1803. Ed.

STATUES 409

STATUES EXECUTED BY MR. NOLLEKENS IN MARBLE.

Denison, Robert . . .

}

Denison, William

Diana Marquis of Rockingham.

Juno Ditto.

Mercury Lord Yarborough.

Pitt, Hon. William Senate House, Cambridge.

Rockingham, Marquis of . . . Earl Fitzwilliam.

Venus 1 Marquis of Rockingham.

Venus chiding Cupid 2 .... Lord Yarborough.

Venus Mr. Chamberlayne, Hampshire.

Venus anointing her hair . . Bought at Mr. Nollekens'

auction by Mrs. Palmer.

Among the few chimney-pieces executed by Mr.
Nollekens, one of a superior kind was sent to
Edinburgh for Mr. Scott.

Mr. Nollekens also executed five masks upon
keystones for Somerset House, after drawings
made purposely by Mr. Cipriani. He likewise
executed orders of a very inferior kind, by putting
them out to be done by the masons of the New
Road ; the profits of which were not inconsiderable,
as he never gave them more than a quarter of what
he charged himself.

1 A noble lord, when viewing Mr. Nollekens' statue of Venus per-
fuming her hair, asked the artist from whence he took the idea of
thus employing her. Surely it must have been from Homer ? Nollekens
made no reply ; in fact, he knew very little of Homer. Smith.

2 Nollekens was so provoked by an accident which happened to one
of his figures during the exhibition at Somerset House that he
threatened F. M. NewtoD, the secretary, who made light of the affair,
should this Venus be in any way injured, to break every bone in his
skin. Smith.

410 NOLLEKENS AND HIS TIMES

As the manner in which every man of talent
advances in his art is interesting to the inquiring
mind, I have extracted from a set of the Royal
Academy Exhibition Catalogues the subjects pro-
duced by Mr. Nollekens as they stand chrono-
logically :

No. 1771.

139. A bust of a nobleman in marble.

140. A model of Bacchus.

141. A ditto, Pastus and Arria, a group.

1772.

168. A bust of a gentleman, in marble.

169. A statue of Bacchus, ditto. 1

177a

211. A statue in marble, representing Venus taking off her sandal.

212. Cupid and Psyche, in basso-relievo.

213. Hope leaning on an urn.

214. Portrait of a young lady.

1774.
190. A bust of his Majesty, in marble.

1775.

208. A bust of a nobleman, in marble.

209. Venus chiding Cupid, a model.

210. A bust, ditto.

1776.

199. A statue of Juno, in marble.

200. A bust, ditto.

201. A bust, in marble.

202. A ditto.

1777.

249. A bust of a nobleman, in marble.

250. Ditto of a gentleman , ditto.

251. Ditto ditto ditto.

1 The original beautiful little model from which this statue was
carved is in the possession of my friend John Gawler Bridge, Esq.
Smith.

MISCELLANEOUS WORKS 411

252. A bust of a gentleman, in marble.

253. Ditto of a lady, a model.

254. Ditto of a gentleman, ditto.

1778.

216. A marble group of Venus chiding Cupid.

217. A statue of Diana.

218. A model of two children, designed for a monument.

219. A bust of a gentleman.

1779.

217. A bust of a nobleman, in marble.

218. Ditto of a general.

219. A model of a monumental figure.

1782.

529. A monumental bas-relievo.

535. A figure of Adonis.

556. A Cupid sharpening his arrow.

1783.
464. Figure of Mercury, in marble.

1784.

497. Bust of a lady.

498. Bust of a nobleman.
520. Bust of a lady.

635. Busto of a gentleman.

1785.
1788.

597. A monumental figure.
605. A monumental figure.
647. Figure of Britannia.

1789.
605. Bust of a gentleman.

1790.

660. Lord Robert Manners expiring in the arms of Victory, in-
tended by the late Duke of Rutland for a monument to be
placed in the chapel at Bel voir Castle.

1791.

632. Bust of a gentleman.

633. Bust of a lady.

412 NOLLEKENS AND HIS TIMES

1792.
498. A bust of a lady.

1793.
585. Bust of a lady.
652. Bust of a gentleman.

1799.

622. Bust of a lady of quality.
933. Bust of a nobleman.
940. Bust of a lady.
951. Bust of a nobleman.
961. Bust of a nobleman.
972. A Venus.

1800.

988. Bust of a gentleman.

989. Bust of a nobleman.
1031. Venus anointing her hair.

1082. A monumental group, to the memory of a lady who died in
child-bed, supported by Religion.

1801.

999. Portrait of Mr. John Townley, in the form of a Terminus.

1001. Bust of his Grace the Duke of Bedford.

1002. Bust of a young gentleman.

1007. A bust of Lady Hawkesbury.

1008. Bust of a young gentleman.

1009. Bust of Lord Petre.

1024. A sepulchral bas-relief to the memory of the late Duke of
Dorset.

1802.

1059. Bust of Dr. Burney,

1063. A design for a monument to the memory of a late celebrated

general, supported by Wisdom and Justice.

1064. A sketch : The Graces.

1065. Bust of the late Duke of Bedford.

1066. A sketch : Adam and Eve.

1067. A sketch of a monument for a naval officer expiring in the

arms of Victory.

1073. Bust of the Hon. C. J. Fox.

1074. A sketch : The Slaughter of the Innocents.

MISCELLANEOUS WORKS 413

1803.

924. Pudicity : a sketch.

925. Bust of Mr. Stonor.

930. Lot and his two Daughters : a sketch.

931. Dsedal us and Icarus : a sketch.

932. The Judgment of Paris : a sketch.
1024. Bust of Lord Moira.

1804.

947. Portrait of the Hon. C. Grey.

948. Portrait of Miss C. Symmons.

949. Portrait of the Right Hon. General Fitzpatrick.

950. Portrait of the Earl of Lauderdale.

951. Portrait of Lord R. Spencer.

1805.

689. A sketch of a Hercules.

690. A sketch of a Faun playing.

693. A medallion of the late Miss Ackland, daughter of J.

Ackland, Esq.

694. A sketch of Laocoon and his Sons.

695. A bust of the Marquis of Stafford.

711. A design of a monument, intended for Westminster Abbey,

to the memory of two naval officers,
783. A bust of the late C. Townley, Esq.
789. A bust of T. W. Coke, Esq.

1808.

969. Bust of the Hon. Mr. Pelham.

970. Bust of the Earl of Darnley.

971. Bust of the Marquis Wellesley.

972. Bust of his Grace the Duke of Bedford.

978. Bust of his Royal Highness the Prince of Wales.

979. Bust of Sir W. W. Wynne, Bart.

1810.

753. His Grace the Duke of Rutland.

766. Bust of the Right Hon. Lord Brownlow.

874. Bust of the Hon. Mrs. Pelham.

875. Bust of the Right Hon. Lord Grenville.

876. Bust of her Grace the Duchess of Rutland.

885. Bust of the Countess of Charlemont.

886. Bust of the Right Hon. Lord Mulgrave.

414 NOLLEKENS AND HIS TIMES

1811.
926. A model of a monument of the late Mrs. Coke, of Holkham.
938. Bust of the Right Hon. Lord Castlereagh.

940. Bust of the Right Hon. Earl of Chatham.

941. Bust of the Right Hon. Lord Grenville Leveson Gower.

948. Bust of the Right Hon. W. Wellesley Pole.

949. Bust of the Right Hon. Lord Roos.

951. Bust of the Right Hon. George Canning.

952. Bust of Admiral Sir J. Colpoys, K.B.

1812.

933. Bust of the Countess of Charlemont. 1

934. Bust of Benjamin West, Esq., President of the Royal

Academy.

936. Bust of the Right Hon. Lord Brooke.

937. Bust of Lord Gwydir.

1813.

919. Bust of the Right Hon. Spencer Perceval.

925. Bust of the Right Hon. Lord G. Cavendish.

926. Bust of H.R.H. the Duke of York.

935. Bust of the Marquis of Wellington.

1814.

781. Bust of S. Whitbread, Esq., M.P.

789. Bust of the Earl of Charlemont.

792. Bust of his Grace the Duke of Grafton.

800. Bust of Earl Cowper.

801. Bust of the Earl of Aberdeen.

1815.

888. Bust of Lord Erskine.

889. Bust of the Rev. C. Burney, D.D.
895. Bust of the Earl of Egremont.

1816.
932. Bust of Lord St. Helen's.

950. Bust of T. Coutts, Esq.

951. Bust of the Earl of Liverpool.

961. Bust of his Grace the Duke of Newcastle.

1 In order to account for the recurrence of the same bust, it may be
proper to remark that Mr. Nollekens in many instances exhibited the
model one year, and a carving from it in marble in the next. Smith.

THE END 415

Such, and so numerous, are the works of Nolle-
kens, who will long be remembered, not only as
having held a conspicuous rank among contem-
porary artists in an era abounding in men of genius,
but as having, by assiduity rarely surpassed, and
parsimony seldom equalled, amassed a princely
fortune ; from which, however, his avaricious spirit
forbade him to derive any comfort or dignity,
excepting the poor consolation of being surrounded,
in his dotage, by parasites who administered to his
unintellectual enjoyments, and flattered even his
infirmities, in the hope of sharing the vast property
which Death would force him to resign.

[417]

APPENDIX

Since the greater part of this volume was in print, Miss
Edith M. Beechey, of High House, Newbury, the grand-
daughter of Sir William Beechey, R.A., who was one of
Nollekens' executors, has obliged me with the sight of a
dossier of French and Flemish documents, only lately
discovered among the family papers, which throw some
small further light on the genealogy of the sculptor.

It appears from them that, on learning of the death of
Nollekens in London, an attorney of Louvain, M. Joseph
Emmanuel Bals, discovered certain collateral heirs of the
sculptor's great-grandfather, and supposing Nollekens to
have died intestate, proceeded to bring their names under
the notice of the Court of Chancery. This attempt, of
course, was promptly shown to be absurd, and the corre-
spondence has little value, except as a further proof of the
extreme accuracy of J. T. Smith. It adds, however, a
few family facts. It carries the genealogy of the sculptor
one generation further back, and reveals a great-grand-
father, Henry Nollekens, who on July 15, 1660, married
Marie Anne de Baghedette de Rinckt, at Antwerp. This
Henry had two sons, the younger being the sculptor's
grandfather ; the elder, Henry Nollekens, born at Antwerp
on February 14, 1663, married Barbe van den Casteelen,
and became the father of Cathrine and Paul Nollekens ;
of these the former, marrying Francois Meulemans, became
the mother of Jean Baptiste Meulemans, while Paul became

27

418 APPENDIX

the father of Jean Baptiste and Francis Nollekens. These
were the three pretendents whom Bals brought forward,
and they were all elderly men at the time, Jean Baptiste
Nollekens being over eighty. They all belonged to the
labouring class.

The claim of these cousins falling through, Bals made
another attempt one fails to see why to disturb the will
on the ground that the sculptor's father, Old Nollekens,
who had called himself Joseph Francis, and had been
buried under that name, when he died in Paddington, on
January 21, 1748, was an illegitimate son. At first it
seemed as though this must be true, for no child of that
name had been baptized at Antwerp between 1690 and
1730. It was found, however, that he had adopted the
name Joseph. The father of the sculptor, then, legitimate
son of Jean Baptiste Nollekens, and born at Antwerp on
June 10, 1702, was Corneille Francois Nollekens, and it
was under that name that he married Marie Anne Le Sacq,
the mother of the sculptor.

One small additional fact is brought to light by this
correspondence, namely, that Old Nollekens studied under
Giovanni Paolo Panini, the Italian painter. The name of
his mother, the grandmother of the sculptor, was Anne
Angeline Le Roux, who was buried at Antwerp on Sep-
tember 30, 1747.

E. G.

t 419 ]

INDEX

Abbott, Francis Lemuel, 96

Academy, Royal, first sculptors, 2, 8,
9 ; first gold medal, 9 ; keepers, 6, 8,
78, 151 ; first secretary, 40 ; Nolle-
kens elected, 40 ; earliest professor
of painting, 69

'Achilles Arming,' Banks, 15

Adam, Robert, the architect, 17, 285

Albani, Cardinal, 225, 399

Alefounder, John, 341

Alexander, William, 24

Antique forgeries, 107, 108

Antique sculpture, Nollekens' treat-
ment, 37, 222, 396

Architects in eighteenth century, 3

Argyle Street, 252

Arminger, William, 76, 121

Arnald, George, A.R.A., 37, 326

Arnald, Sebastian Wyndham, 37

Artificial Stone Factory, Lambeth, 9,
10

Ashbourne, Derbyshire, 15

Bacon, John, R.A., 1 ; career, 9 ;
character and success, 10, 11 ; skill,
11, 12 ; and George III., 90, 91

Baddeley, the actor, 194

Bailey, Edward Hodges, R. A., 246, 304

Baillie, Captain, 141

Bailye, Rev. Canon H., 135

Baker, John, 51

Balme, Rev. Edward, 365, 368, 373

Banks, Sir Joseph, 228

Banks, Thomas, R. A., birth and educa-
tion, 13 ; career, 14, 15 ; ' Every
Man in his Way,' 72

Bannister, Charles, 120, 121, 148

Bannister, John, 194

Baptiste, flower-painter, 62

Barber, Francis, 135

Barnard, John, 299

Barry, James, R.A., 34, 35, 66 f 105,
161, 253, 327, 401

Bartolozzi, Francesco, R.A., 22

Bat Pidgeon, of the Strand, 304, 305

Bathurst, Lord Chancellor, 73

Beaumont, Sir George, 137

Beechey, Sir William, R.A., 328, 339,
345, 363, 366, 373, 375, 417

Beefsteak Club, 125

Bell, Rev. Dr., 164

Bensley, the printer, 134
1 Bentham, William, 56
J Bessborough, Earl of, 38, 118, 119

Betew, Paton, 173-177, 178
J Bethlehem Hospital, 20, 213

Bird, Francis, 1, 167, 182, 389
i Birdcage Walk, 229
I Bishopsgate Street, 213

Bolt Court (Dr. Johnson's), 134

Bonomi, Joseph, A.R.A., 63, 256, 276,
289, 322, 337, 338
I Bonomi, Family of, bequest, 366
I Booth, bookseller, 55
I Boothby monument, Banks', 15
j Borsi, Dr. , of Rome, 250
; Boswell, James, 128, 130, 204, 216
I Bourgeois, Sir Francis, R.A., 326,

339
! Bow Churchyard, 9
I Bow manufactory, 176
I British Museum, print-keepers, 24, 25,
83 ; Townley marbles, 36, 230 ; Lord
Exeter's drawings, 223

Britton, Tom, 193

Bromley, herald-painter, 49

Brompton, Richard, 310

Brooking, Charles, 175

Browne, George H., 303

Brownlow. See Exeter, Earl of

Burney, Dr. Charles, 61, 116, 151

Busby's monument, 167

420

INDEX

Byrne, William, 279
Byrne, Mrs., 367

Canova, A, 18, 250

Capizzoldi, 5, 48

Capon, William, 217

Carlini, Agostino, R.A., 2, 5, 6, 8,

151
Carlisle, Sir Anthony, 365, 370
Carlisle Street, Soho, 8
Carter, Mrs. Elizabeth, 77, 84, 85, 120,

186-89, 287
Carter, John, 164
Carter, Thomas, 18, 168
Catherine of Russia, 14, 404
Catling, John, 163
Catton, Charles, R.A., 50
Cave, E., 205

Cecil, biographer of Bacon, 1
Ceracchi, Giuseppe, 17
Chambers, Sir William, R.A., 104
Chambers, Lady, 48, 188
Chantry, Sir Francis, R.A., 16, 182,
233, 240, 245, 265, 276, 335, 386,
405
Charlemont, Lady, bust, 403
Charles Street, Westminster, 51
Charlotte, Queen, 83, 84, 155, 296,
323

Chatelaine, J. B. C, 174

Chatham's monument, Bacon, 12, 16

Cheer e, Sir Henry, leaden figures, 85,
249

Chelsea china designers, 177

Cheney, Bartholomew, 168

Chesterfield's letters, 80

Chippendale, Thomas, 196

Christie, the auctioneer, 65, 234, 285,
368, 375, 395, 401

Church Court, Covent Garden, 52

Cibber, Caius Gabriel, 214

Cipriani, Giovanni Baptista, R.A., 5,
48, 182, 183, 184, 231, 316, 409

Clarkson, Nathaniel, 50

Coates, "Francis, R.A., death, 82

Cockpit, The Royal, 235

Coleman, Miss, 201

Coleraine, Lord, 218, 219

Cook, F., 149

Cooke, 'Memory,' 53

Cooper, Richard, senior, 279

Coote, Sir Eyre, monument, Banks,
14, 15 ; bust, Nollekens, 140

Cornwall's monument, Cheney, 168

Cosway, Richard, R.A., 134, 306,
367

Cosway, Mrs. Maria, 134, 295

Coutts, Mrs. (afterwards Duchess of
St. Albans), 386, 387

Coutts, the banker, 385, 387

Covent Garden : Lord Russell's house.
54 ; Robins' rooms, 58 ; debased
period, 132, 133 ; Low's Hotel, 187 ;
flowers first sold, 187 ; famous resi-
dents, 197-99

Cranbourne Alley, 130

Cranmer, Charles, model, 83

Craven buildings, Drury Lane, 78

Crispe, of Bow Churchyard, 9

Crone, Robert, 239, 299

Crowther, of Bow, 176

Cunningham, Allan, 1, 3, 16

Dallaway, Rev. James, 170

Dalton, Richard, 88, 239

Darner, Hon. Anne, 17

Dance -Holland, Sir Nathaniel, R.A.,

49, 151, 152, 187, 249, 336
Darley, Matthew, 318
Dawkins, James, 388
Dean Street, 62
Deare, John, 17, 18, 181, 221, 222,

361, 388
Delvaux, Laurent, 2, 3
Delvaux, junior, 121
Desenfans, Noel, 325, 326
Devay, Abbe, 228

Deville, of the Strand, 333, 394, 403
Devins, Miss S., 367
Devonshire Place, 56
Dibdin, Charles, 214
Dixon, John, 149, 151
Dodd, ' Little,' 148
Dogs, Anecdotes of, 153, 154, 156, 160
Douce, Francis, 366, 368, 375
Dress (ladies') in 1771, 42, 43
Drummond, George, 404
Dulwich Gallery, 326
Dundas, Sir Thomas, 285
Dutch tables, 241

Eckstein, John, 168

Edmonton, 23

Egremont's, Earl, Petworth gallery,

246, 327, 398
Eldon, Lord, 56
Elgin marbles, 230, 242, 256, 322 ;

House of Commons committee, 257-6
Elgin's, Lord, house, 256
Evans, of Pall Mall, 65, 396
Exeter, Earl of, 223

Fagan's drawings, 222
'Falling Giant,' Banks, 15

INDEX

421

Fashions in 1771, 43, 44 ; account by

Miss Moser, 79
Ferg, Francis Paul, 177
Fiamingo's models, 388
Fielding, Henry, 41, 42 ; anecdotes of,

126-28; Man of the Hill in 'Tom

Jones,' 177, 391
Fielding, Sir John, 125, 132
Fifing boys, 287
Flaxman, John, R.A., 1, 10, 17, 20,

112, 148, 168, 223, 246, 257, 267,

301, 313, 350, 359, 361, 385, 399;

evidence on Elgin marbles, 259-64
Fleet prisoners' money-box, 65
Foley Place, 48
Ford, Richard, 138
Fountain's school, 56
Fox, Charles James, 308, 393, 404, 406
French Gardens, 93
Frogmore, 83
Fryer, Dr., 400, 401, 402
Fuseli, Henry, R.A., 80, 102, 161,

216, 217, 321, 385

Gahagan, George, 367

Gahagan, Sebastian, 121, 289, 332, 367,

380, 381
Gainsborough, 81, 170, 172,173, 175, 309
Garrard, George, 324
Garrick. David, 22, 33. 49, 81, 148,

149, 151, 152, 154, 188, 196, 236,

283, 293
Garrick, Mrs., 151, 155 ; her dog

Biddy, 154
Garter, insignia of the Order, 152
Gatehouse, Westminster, 169
Gaugain, T., 394
Gee, Mrs. Elizabeth, 371
George III., birthplace, 170 ; and Nol-

lekens, 88-91 ; Mr. Townley and,

229 ; Rebecca and, 316
Gerrard, Mrs., 367
Gerrard, Miss, 337
Gerrard Street, 23, 76
Gibbons, Grinling, 54
Gibson, John, R.A., 322
Gifford, Mr., 205
Gilliland, Thomas, 285
Goblet, Alexander, 290, 303, 356, 364,

365, 367, 368, 371, 372, 407
Goblet, Henry, 37?, 373
Goblet, Louisa, 367
Go-cart for infants, 211-13
Golden Square, 83
Goldsmith, Oliver ('the Professor of

History'), 81, 284; monument in

Westminster Abbey, 76

Goupy, Joseph, 45

Gower Street, 55, 56

Graham, Mrs., 147

Grand Junction Canal fetes, 319, 320

Grassini, the singer, 252

Gray, Thomas, 136

Great Portland Street, 21, 47, 48

Great Queen Street, 196, 197

Great Russell Street, Covent Garden,

399
Green, a sculptor, 121
Green, Mrs., 366
Gribelin, 184
Grignon, Charles, 188
Grignon, Thomas, 50, 78, 125, 176, 299
Grosvenor Square, 59, 197

Haid, Johann, 150
Halifax monument, Bacon, 12
Hamilton, Colonel, 172, 173
Hamilton, Gavin, 81, 172, 222, 316, 323
Hampstead, Upper Flask Tavern, 86 ;

salubrity and residences, 111-13
Hampton, 155
Handel, G. F., 56

Hanger, Colonel George. See Coleraine
Hawkins, Sir John, 129, 130, 135, 201 ;

1 History of Music,' 193
Hawkins, Mrs., 368
Hawkins, Miss, 110, 116, 129; her

anecdotes, 205-208
Hayman, Frank, R.A., 99, 103, 236
Henning, John, 268, 387, 388
Hill, Aaron, 300
Hilton, William, R.A., 151
Hinchliffe, Right Rev. Dr., 23
Hoadly, Dr. John, 236
Hoare, Mr. Prince, 250, 300
Hoare, William, R.A., 206
Hogarth, William, 45, 60, 66, 68, 148,

178, 179, 235, 236, 247, 278, 392
Holmes, Admiral, monument by Wil-
ton, 6
Holt, Mrs. Mary, 353, 358, 367, 373
Hone, Horace, 143
Hone, Nathaniel, R.A.,enamellist, 140,

141, 176; exhibition of 'Conjuror,'

142-47 ; death, 147
Hone's ' Every-day Book,' 197
Hoole, John, 196
Horn, Count, 84

Hornick, Mrs., and daughters, 81
Howard, Mrs., monument, Nollekens,

407
Hoyle, E., ' Whist,' 44
Hudson, Thomas, 58, 196, 318
Hussey, Mrs., 127, 128

422

INDEX

Hutton, Dr., 205

Ireland, Samuel, 191

Ixion on the Wheel,' Procter, 18

Jackson, John, R.A., 336

James Street, Covent Garden, 188

Jenkins, antique dealer, 37, 222, 299

Jennings, Noel, 254, 255

Jernigan, Henry, 299

John Street, St. Pancras, 294

Johnson, Dr. Samuel, 22, 42, 71, 76,
82, 92, 104, 105, 118, 121, 128, 130,
134-36, 203, 207, 236, 251, 288, 291,
292 ; bust, 390, 405 ; Bolt Court
house, 134

Joseph, G. F., A.R.A., 91, 286

Joseph, Samuel, 91

Julien, Pierre, 5

Kauffman, Mrs. Angelica, R.A., 77,
81, 83, 100, 141, 142-46, 310, 316,
388 ; first marriage, 84, 249 ; death,
250

Kean, Edmund, 341

Kean, Moses, 340, 341

Keate, George, 153

Kerrick, Rev. Thomas, 290, 366, 371,
374, 381

King, Colonel Richard, 61

Kitchiner, Dr. William, 192, 193

Kneller, Sir Godfrey, 197, 391, 392

Knight, Richard Payne, 52, 83

Knowles, John, 385

Lake, Sir James, 23, 176
Lambert, George, 125
Langford, the auctioneer, 58
Lawrence, Sir Thomas, R.A. , 85, 162,

185, 257, 265, 350, 360, 390, 400, 401
Le Beck, the cook, 127
Lee, Mary, C. Whiteford's widow, 365,

366
Leicester Fields, 60, 133, 182
Leicester Gallery of Pictures, 401
Lely, Sir Peter, 197
Lincoln's Inn Fields, 197
Litchfield Street, 131
Liverpool Street, 213
Lloyd, Mrs. Mary, R.A., 77-83, 102,

120, 280, 289, 291, 292, 293, 308 ; will,

294, 295
Locke, William, of Norbury, 37
London street-cries, 192-96
Lonsdale, James, 384
Loutherbourg, Philip James de, R.A.,

112, 120

Lowe, T., singer, 56, 120
Lupton, George, 367, 381

McArdell, James, 211
Macpherson, Sir John, 286
Mansfield, Lord, 118, 207, 243, 344
Martin, Rev. Mr., 104
Marylebone Church, 41 ; Fields, 133,

218, 255 ; Gardens, 56, 133
May Day dances, 115
Mendoza, 373
Mengs, Raffaelle, 278
Meyer, Jeremiah, R.A., 86
Michael Angelo, 360
Monamy, Peter, 49
Monmouth House, Soho Square, 53
Montague, Lady Mary Wortley, 198
Monuments by Nollekens, catalogue of,

407, 408
Morland, George, 49
Mortimer, John Hamilton, A.R.A., 52
Mortimer Street, 40, 93, 365
Moser, George Michael, R.A., 77, 78,

151, 176
Moser, Joseph, 294
Moser, Mary, R.A. See Lloyd, Mrs.

Mary
Mosman, Nicholas, 222-24

Newborough, Lady, 331

Newman Street, 320

New Road masons, 409

Newspapers, Old, 66-8

Newton, Francis M., R.A., 40, 145,
409

Newton, Sir Isaac, 60

Nichols, Mr. Deputy, 205

Nollekens, Henry, 417

Nollekens, Joseph, R.A., 15-17, 24 ;
pedigree, 29, 30, 417, 418; early
masters, 31 ; Society of Arts pre-
miums, 32, 33 ; in Rome, 33-9 ;
patronized by Garrick, 33 ; by
Sterne, 34 ; wins Papal medal, ib. ;
Barry's friendship, 34, 35 ; antique
dealings, 35, 36, 37, 38 ; smuggling
in busts, 39 ; Mortimer Street
house, 40; elected R.A., ib. ; royal
patronage, ib., 88, 90 ; marries
Mary Welch, 41-4 ; J. T. Smith in
studio, 57 ; mother, 66 ; eccentricities,
72-5, 220, 221 ; person, 95, 96, 150,
218 ; dinner-parties, 98-103 ; anti-
pathy to Romney, 102 ; domestic
jars, 110, 117, 224-26 ; father-in-
law's legacy, 130 ; conversations,
163-171, 174-77 ; on colossal sculp-

INDEX

423

ture, 180 ; at Academy Club and
Harrogate, 199-201 ; a Venus model,
201, 202 ; coarseness, 227 ; merits as a
sculptor, 241, 363, 389, 393 ; love of
Italian Opera, 252 ; orthography,
253 ; on Elgin marbles, 257-59 ; in.
contrast with Flaxman, 267 ; house
robbed, 274, 275; studio and gallery,
276 ; bereavement, 289 ; Mary
Lloyd's executor, 294 ; habits, 296,
297 ; fits of generosity, 304, 335, 344 ;
residence, 307-11 ; faith, 311, 312; art
patronage, 326, 327 ; manners, 328,
331 ; insensibility to natural objects,
350 ; meanness, 39, 353-58 ; draw-
ings, 358-61 ; skill in modelling,
363 ; death, 365 ; will, 365-73 ;
funeral, 374-77 ; profit from Pitt
commissions, 383 ; sale of effects,
395 ; charges, 406 ; list of works,
403-14
Nollekens, Old, [Joseph] Corneille

Francois, 29, 80, 418
Nollekens, Mrs. Joseph, 41, 42, 69-71,
94, 95, 101, 106, 113, 129, 189, 190,
204, 252, 280, 288, 289, 295, 311,
386.
Norfolk, Duke of, town-house, 170
Norman, the dog doctor, 156, 157
Northcote, James, R.A., 252, 285, 300

' Old Corks,' 195
Old newspapers, 66-8
Opie, John, R.A., 215
Oram, William. 112
Ottley, William Young, 162
Oxford Market, 298

Paddington, 14, 49, 288, 365, 376

Palmer, F. R., 368

Pantheon, Oxford Street, 215, 216

Paoli, General, 120

Paradice, Mrs., 291, 292

Park Lane, Piccadilly, 256

Park Street, Westminster, 227, 229-35

Pasquin, Anthony, 318

Peck, Jasper, 368, 375

Pelham. See Yarb rough

Pennant, Thomas, 55

Penny, Edward, R.A., 69

Perceval, Hon. Spencer, 406

Peter Pindar. See Wolcot

Pether, Abraham, 329

Petworth, 246, 398

Phillips, Lieutenant-Colonel, 61, 155

Pigalle, Jean Baptiste, 47

Pisano, Vittorio, 270

Pitt, Right Hon. W., statue, Cam-
bridge, 380-82, 406

Playbill for Marshalsea benefit, 393

Pocock's, SirG., monument, Bacon, 12

Pond, Arthur, 318

Pope, Alexander, 330

Poplar, Ea9t India Company's Chapel,
88

Procter, Thomas, 18, 19, 361

Pulteney monument, Wilton, 6

Queen Anne Street East (Foley Place),

48
'Queen's Head and Artichoke,' 218,

254
Queen's Street, Lincoln's Inn, 49. See

Great Queen's Street
Queen's Square, 40
Quellinus, Arthur, 4
Quin, James, 148, 149

Radcliffe, Mrs. Anne, 157-160

Rann, Jack ('Sixteen-string Jack'), 47

Rathbone Place, 59, 147

Rat's Castle, Dyot Street, 321

Rawle, the antiquary, 31

Read, Nicholas, sculptor, 6

Rebecca, Biagio, A.R.A., 316, 317,
318

Renton, John, 333

Reynolds, Sir Joshua, P.R.A., 18, 58,
59, 76, 81, 104, 141, 147, 228, 252,
301, 329, 330, 400, 402

Rich, Mr., 125, 209

Richardson, George, 122

Richardson, Jonathan, junior, 40, 390

Richardson, Samuel, 205

Rigaud, John Francis, R.A., 184, 185

Rijsbrack, John Michael, 2, 359

Robertson, Andrew, 334

Robertson, Charles, 367

Robins, the auctioneer, 58

Robinson, Perdita, 23

Rodney's Captains, monument by Nol-
lekens, 16, 383

Romney, George, 112

Rossi, John C. F., R.A., 19, 200, 246,
336, 397, 398, 399

Roubiliac, L. F., 1, 2, 7, 21, 22, 31,
174, 214, 240, 389, 396

Rouw, Peter, 373, 375

Royal Academy Club, 199

Rubens, P. P., 182, 183-85, 211

Rudeman, Dr., 367

Rumsey, Mrs. Elizabeth, 367

Runciman, Alexander, 82

Russell Court, Co vent Garden, 319

424

INDEX

Russell Square, 401

Russell Street, Drury Lane, 50, 125

St. George's Church, Bloomsbury, 129

St. James's Square, 170

St. Martin's Churchyard, 22

St. Martin's Lane Academy, 13, 21,

408 ; Hone's pictures 147
St. Martin's Street, Leicester Square,

60
St. Paul's, 182, 244

St. Paul's, Covent Garden, 78, 198, 299
Salmon's Waxworks, 165
Sancho, Ignatius, 51, 53
Sandby, Paul, R.A., 138, 139, 175
Sandby, Thomas, R.A., 23
Sayer, James, 87
Scheemakers, Peter, 2, 22, 31, 64, 167,

389
Score, William, 59
Sculptor's disadvantages, 243, 244
Seward, William, 161
Shakespeare, 209
Sharp, William, 271, 293
Sheridan, Richard B., 196, 217
Sherwin, John Kaye, 23, 155, 205, 206
Shipley, William, drawing-school, 30,

408
Shuter, Ned, 194
Siddons, Mrs., 23, 382, 383
Signs by well-known artists, 49-51
Simon, Thomas, 181, 271
1 Sixteen-string Jack,' 47, 164
Smart, John, 308
Smirke, Robert, R.A., 49
Smith, Charles, 284
Smith, John Thomas, 1, 21-26, 36, 37,

99, 373
Smith, Nathaniel, 21, 22, 30, 32, 57,

121
Society of Arts, 9, 31, 296
Soane, Sir John, R.A., 350
Soho Square, 62
Soilleux, John, 367
Somerset House or Place, 6, 78, 409
' Southwark Fair,' Hogarth, 236
Spang, M. H., 360
Spilsbury, John, 319
Spinning-wheel Alley, 213
Staines, Sir William, 315
State-coach of George III., 48, 49
Statues by Nollekens, catalogue of, 409
Steam stage-coach, 320, 221
Steevens, George, 86-88, 136
Sterne, Laurence, 34, 39, 51
Stewart, an American artist, 336
Stothard, Thomas, R.A., 165

Stow, James, 172
Strand, 304

Strange, Sir Robert, 239
Street-cries of London, 192-96
Strike of shoemakers in 1766, 131
Stuart, James ('Athenian'), 36, 45, 60
Sutherland, Colonel, 55
Symmons, Rev. Dr. Charles, 367

Tabley, Lord de, The first, 186

Tavistock Row, 187

Taylor, John, portrait-painter, 98-100,

i01, 289, 331, 362, 367
Teuscher, Marcus, 40
Theed, William, R.A., 19, 20
Thomson, Henry, R.A., 151
Thornhaugh Street, 296
Thornhill, Sir James, 177, 197
Thrale, Mrs., 118
Thurlow, bust by Rossi, 19
Tinney, John, 279
Titchfield Street, 122, 201, 215
Townley, Charles, 22, 36, 38, 121, 171,

201, 227-29 ; house and gallery,

229-35, 258, 259. 313
Townley, John, 235, 32 1
Townsend's monument in Abbey, 168
' Traveller Twiss,' 209
Tresham, Henry, R.A., 216, 321
Tull, Nathaniel, 175
Turner, J. M. W., R.A., 304
Twigg, the fruiterer, 186

Uxbridge Canal excursions, 319

Vandevelde, William, 187

Varley, John, 325

Vauxhall Gardens, 100

Vere Street, 2

Verninck, Maria, 370

Vertue, George, 166

Vestris, Madame, 116

Vine Street, 2, 31, 64

Vivares, Thomas, 174, 175

' Vortigern,' representation of, 191, 192

Walford, Mrs., 367

Walpole, Horace, 50

Walton, Parry, 184

Ward, Dr., 51

Warwick Street, Golden Square, 5

Watteau, Antoine, 29

Wedding-dress of a lady in 1771, 42, 43

Welch, Anne, 41, 129, 130, 189, 253,

280, 292 ; death and epitaph, 251
Welch, Saunders, 41, 48, 102, 103, 123,

124-127, 128, 129, 30-34, 136-38, 311

INDEX

425

Wellington, Duke of, 374, 376

Wesley, John, 221

Wesley, Samuel, the organist, 116,
210 221

West,' Benjamin, P.K.A., 19, 257, 295,
316, 317, 320, 367

Westmacott, Richard, R.A., 20, 241,
246, 264, 276

Westminster Abbey, 163-69, 313-15,
389

Westminster Bridge, Old, 169

Westminster, dress of the High Con-
stable, 124, 125

Whitbread, Samuel, 248

White, a fabricator of antiques, 108

White's Chocolate House, 97

Whitefield, Rev. George, 133 ; taber-
nacle, 11

Whiteford, Caleb, 102, 281-84, 310,
365, 366

Whitehall ceiling, Rubens, 182-85

Wigs, treatment by artists, 390, 391 ;
theft of, 392, 393

Wilkes, John, 125

Wilkie, Sir David, R.A., 390

Wilkinson, Robert, 206

Williams, John, critic, 318

Williams, sculptor, 397

Wilson, Richard, RA., 51, 136, 137,
138, 139, 186, 197, 278, 310

Wilton, Joseph, R.A., 2, 3-8, 22, 48,

104
Winckelmann's 'Reflections,' 4
Wivell, Abraham, 344
Wolcot, Dr. ('Peter Pindar'), 137,

187, 214, 215, 319
Wolfe, General, monument by Wilton,

5, 7, 174
Wollaston, Rev. Mr., 367
Woodburn, Samuel, 162
Woodcock, John, 367
Woodward, Dr., 61
Wodlett, William, 279
Worlidge, Thomas, 196
Wren, Sir Christopher, 184
Wright, coach-maker, 50
Wyatt, Richard. 23
Wycherley, William, 391, 393
Wynn, Sir Watkin W., 49, 151, 152

Yarborough, Lord, 38, 71, 99, 395," 396 ;
his daughter, 73

Zincke, Christian Friedrich, 187
Zotfany, Johann, R.A., 81, 86, 149,

228, 278, 309
Zotfany, Mrs. Mary, 366, 378
Zucchi, Antonio, R.A., 84, 316. See

Kauffman

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